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SOME OBSERVATIONS 

r 

UPON THE 

CIVILIZATION 


OF THE 

WESTERN BARBARIANS, 

PARTICULARLY OF THE ENGLISH; 


MADE DURING A RESIDENCE OF SOME YEARS IN THOSE PARTS, 


By AH-CHIN-LE, 




MANDARIN OF THE FIRST CLASS, MEMBER OF THE 
ENLIGHTENED AND EXALTED CALAO. 




TRANSLATED FROM THE CHINESE INTO ENGLISH, 


By JOHN YESTER SMYTHE, Esq., 

OF S II AN GIFIYA I , 

AND 

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED OUT OF CHINA AND IN OTHER THAN CHINESE. 


-D — — 


I » 




BOSTON : 


\\ cv 


'' v ' ':g/ \ 


of was 


LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS*. 


NEW YORK : 

CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM, 

678 BROADWAY. 

1876. 





THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 


COPYRIGHT. 

J. B. SWASEY. 
1876. 


3 

4 





TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 


This Translation of the Work of Ah-Chin-le is trust- 
worthy as to the meaning of the Text — though the literal 
translation has not been, in many cases, attempted. 

Preserving the Spirit of the Author, the Translator 
has desired to be intelligible in good, readable English. 
Where it is impossible to give the precise thought of a 
mind so differently cultured, the nearest English is 
given. It is hoped that the inherent difficulty of the 
task may excuse errors of grammar and style. 

The Translator has been so absorbed in his Author, 
that he fears he may have often slipped in his Syntax, 
and been rude in his manner. However, with whatever 
faults, he hands the volume to his Countrymen — think- 
ing that they may be as much interested in it as he has 
been; and may derive as much amusement. If it do 
not commend itself for its Wisdom, it may, at least, for 
its novelty — that is, as a genuine expression of intel- 
ligent Chinese opinion, concerning the “ Civilization of 
the Western Barbarians , and jparticularly of the English ” 

The Author’s own Preface explains the Origin of the 
Work, and its claims to consideration. 

The Retreat, 

Shanghai, China, 1875. 


J. Y. S. 




AUTHORS PREFACE. 


Ah-chin-le, Mandarin, and member of tlie exalted 
Calao , to the Illustrious Wo-sung , Mandarin, First class, 
President of the most Serene, the grand Council, Calao ; 
virtue, health, and the highest place in the Hall of 
your Sublime Ancestors ! Trained from my youth for 
many years in the school of the Foreigners [Fo-kien], 
so as to be versed in the languages of the chief Bar- 
barians of the West, and particularly of the English, 
afterwards perfected in the latter at our port of 
Shanghai, and sent by your Illustrious command upon 
a private mission with the Imperial Embassy to the 
outside Barbarians of the far West to curiously seek 
into the state of those Peoples, and report upon the 
same to your Illustrious mind — that being so informed 
exactly, your Wisdom might, in those matters apper- 
taining to the Western Barbarians, enlighten the Son 
of Heaven (our Celestial and Imperial Majesty [Bang- 
ztse] most renowned and exalted) when, in Council, 
things touching those outer Barbarians should be con- 
sidered : these, my poor words, in so far as to your 
Illustrious Wisdom it has been thought proper to make 
general, are now produced : that the happy subjects of 
our Central, Flowery Kingdom, may understand more 
perfectly the condition ' of those outside Barbarians, re- 


VI 


author’s preface. 


specting whom so very little is known, and may the 
more cautiously guard the Sacred Institutions [Kam- 
phfe] of our Celestial Land^-wise, peaceful, powerful, 
and teeming with an industrious and contented people, 
before the Western Barbarians had so much as the 
rudiments of learning. 

All-chin prostrates his poor body before your Illus- 
trious Benevolence, and craves forbearance that these, 
his unworthy Observations , are not better ordered: — the 
circumstances of travel, fatigue, agitation of mind, hurry 
and confusion, have been unfavourable for that due 
ordering of the same which a respect for your Illustrious 
Wisdom required — in this particular the precise Beport, 
submitted to the Exalted, the Calao, through the hands 
of your Illustrious Greatness, is more perfect. These 
are minutes, rather, jotted down and fastened for better 
reordering, if, at another time, it should be judged fit. 
May the Sovereign Lord of Heaven [Chang-ti] keep 
your Illustrious mind and body ! 

AH-CHIN-LE. 

Note. — These Observations now following were made 
in England, and refer chiefly to the English Barbarians, 
who pride themselves upon being the most powerful 
and most enlightened of all the outer Barbarians, and, 
in fact, of any People in the whole, immense World. 

Ah-Chin. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 

I. — OP THE RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS OP THE 

ENGLISH 

II. — OP THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OP THE ENGLISH 

III. — SOME PARTICULARS OF THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRA- 

TION 

IV. — UPON EDUCATION : A FEW REFLECTIONS 

V. — OF THE LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH 

VI. — OF THEIR TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT 

VII. — SOME REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND 

BURIALS [HI-DT] 

VIII. — OF ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SOME WORDS ABOUT 
SCIENCE [KNO-TE] 

IX. — OF AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES 

X. — OF EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE, AND ASPECTS OF 

DAILY LIFE 

XI.— OF THE HIGH-CASTES : SOME PARTICULARS OF THEIR 
DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS 

XII. — OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY, THE CLIMATE, 
AND OTHER THINGS 

XIII. — LONDON 

XIV. — SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 


PAG K 

1 

45 

76 

98 

109 

131 

150 

170 

195 

214 

223 

246 

257 

278 


















c 








































i • 



























































































i . 






































* 




. 




















































♦ 











OBSERVATIONS. 


CHAPTER I. 

OF THE RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ENGLISH. 

The worship of the supreme Lord of Heaven [Chang- 
ti], is not unknown to these Barbarians, though degraded 
by many Superstitions. 

The purity of the divine and original Worship (as 
with the vulgar in our Celestial Kingdom) .is too simple. 
About 500 or 600 years after our Confutze, in the time 
of the Bomans, there appeared in an obscure province 
of their Empire a new Sect of devotees, who asserted 
that they had among them a Son of Heaven. This Son 
they called Christ; and those who adopted this new 
deity were called Christians. This was nearly 2000 
years [met-li-ze] ago. The Sect increased and spread. 
One of the Emperors of the West adopted the new god, 
and enforced the worship of him upon the subjects of 
the Empire. 

All the Western Barbarians derive their knowledge 
from the Bomans ; whose power, indeed, they over- 
turned, but whose civilization they imitated. Particu- 
larly, the Bonzes (Priests) of the new Superstition , 
joined to the Chiefs of new powers (which arose upon 
the ruins of the Boman Empire), preserved some re- 
mains of the ancient Learning, and enforced the new 
$ 


B 


2 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


Superstition. What little of letters remained was almost 
entirely with the Bonzes. This event was much the 
same as the introduction from the Hindoos into our 
Central Kingdom of the worship of the Hindoo god, Fo; 
and, curiously, these events happened at about the same 
time. 

It is to he observed that in our Illustrious Kingdom 
there is a tendency to superstitious observances. We have 
several Sects [pho-ti] ; hut our Literati merely tolerate 
and do not worship. A simple and pure homage to the 
Sovereign Lord of Heaven [Hoang- chan- ti] is an act of 
the Wise : and even the Sects make their Spirits sub- 
ordinate to Him. The Western Barbarians, however, 
dishonour the true worship by strange “ rites ” — even by 
incredible superstitions, when the intellectual culture is 
considered. It is not long since, in the monstrous cre- 
dulity of the people, directed by the Bonzes, it was 
believed that the Devil (Chief of the Evil Demons ) would 
enter into an individual — generally some old, ugly, and 
friendless woman — and, by her , turn the milk sour, drive 
the cattle mad, torture children, shrivel up the limbs, 
blast with the Evil Eye ; and even plague with disease 
and with horrible death ! And these wretched women, 
and sometimes men, themselves often fancying that the 
Devil was really in them, were seized upon, dragged 
through mud and mire, fearfully maltreated, and put to 
death by the horrible torments of fire, upon this wild 
accusation : and this terrible scene was not caused by a 
maddened rabble of the common sort, but under the lead 
of the Bonzes, and according to the Laws of the Land 
The great, central figure of idolatry is the Pope, who 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


sits enthroned in Rome; and is, generally, a very old 
man, not always remarkable for wisdom nor virtue. He 
•claims to be the sole vicegerent of the Christ-god, and 
•only visible divine Head — all who do not worship him 
=are really not true worshippers. Yet, there are many 
■Sects of this Superstition; and in England, the Sovereign 
is held to be the true Pope and Head ! The English 
Pope now worshipped is therefore a woman — the Queen ! 
Such a thing seemed to me to be too wild — a phantasy 
— I could not comprehend. I knew that this Sect — 
the Roman — had long ago followers in our Elowery 
Kingdom; and our annals show was tolerated: not, how- 
ever, for the Superstition , but for the Bonzes, who were 
masters of some useful knowledge. Personally, I never 
knew any native devotees of the Superstition — in fact it 
has steadily diminished in repute, and its few and scat- 
tered adherents are very obscure. So I was, and am 
still, puzzled by this extraordinary Sect. I have read 
the Creed ; a sort of verbal incantation, made by de- 
votees in the temples. 

One day, I begged of a good-natured, large-bellied, 
Priest to explain to me ; and ventured to ask him if the 
Creed was really an Article of Belief, or only a formal 
and meaningless Invocation — like some of the mum- 
meries [phin-zi] of our Superstitious Sects. He looked 
surprised ; but when he saw that he was thus accosted 
by a 11 Heathen Chinee ” (as these Barbarians always 
•contemptuously call the inhabitants of our Central 
Land), he merely said : “ Why, you have in China our 
Missionaries to enlighten your darkness; have you never 
met them ?” “ No ; I have heard of them at Shanghai ; 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


but they do not speak our tongue, nor do we understand 
tliem; and their teachings, even if understood, would 
attract no attention from the Literati , who would con- 
sider them as unworthy of notice as any other Super- 
stition.” “ How so ? our Eeligion is no Superstition 
it is the true and only true Eeligion, revealed by God 
himself to his chosen people, and miraculously preserved 
for all believers.” “ I bow before your Illustrious mind 
and body ; but we have, and have had from time imme- 
morial, just such pretensions; they are as old as history.” 
“ I will not argue ; but look at the excellency of our 
divine religion ! ” “ Where shall I look ? If you mean 

the excellency of certain moral principles, there is no- 
thing peculiar to your Sect in them. They have been 
taught in our schools for thousands of years — they arc 
excellent ; they show the divine in man — man is of the 
divine; morality comes of that.” “But look at your 
frightful vices ; at your Pagan worship — see the effects 
of idolatry ! ” “I bow to your Illustrious mind.” I 
saw my effort to obtain any reasonable explanation was 
fruitless; I made my obeisance ancl left. What an illus- 
tration of ignorant and superstitious conceit ! Vice,, 
thousands of miles beyond sea, so dreadful ; the vice at 
hand, defiling every corner, unseen ! The only true 
Eeligion of this Priest will not see, or, seeing, he will 
not believe that it is Vice — or, at any rate, idolatrous — 
pagan Vice ! I could not believe, at first, that the 
Superstition was more than a Form, kept up merely for 
the advantage of the Priests. The sharp intellects of 
the P>arbarians, applied so fruitfully to useful arts, 
seemed stultified, if I held to their actual belief. I 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


o 

doubted tlie honesty of the Priests; I knew the bad 
oharacter of many of the Bonzes of our Superstitious 
Sects. Now, better acquainted with the imperfect civi- 
lization of the people, I am not moved by these ignorant 
and bigoted displays. Poverty, vice, and drunkenness ; 
crimes of violence and fraud, are rife among the Bar- 
barians. The Temples, ordered and maintained by the 
Queen-Pope, are, for the most part — especially in great 
■Cities — empty. The Sects of the Low-Caste people, 
despised by the Higli-Caste, are far more zealous wor- 
shippers, though not better Christians. The funds raised 
to support the great Temples and the Priests, are' nearly 
■all absorbed by them, and the Temples left ruinous, 
'the lowest Castes do not worship, but curse the Sove- 
reign Lord. Yet, our Illustrious Kingdom is called 
Pagan — Heathen — words implying every degradation; 
and our people fit only to be turned over to the endless 
torments of Evil Spirits ! 

Like our Confutze, the principles of morality and 
general benevolence are taught in the sayings ascribed 
to Christ. Yet fighting in the most brutal manner is 
allowed in the Schools, although the teachings of Christ, 
•commanding Charity and Peace, are conned over in the 
daily lessons ; and horrible Wars for the subjugation of 
other Peoples, incessantly waged ! Still, if we may be- 
lieve these Barbarians, all true religion and virtue are 
possessed only by them ! The education of the people 
has been disregarded; and now, when the wisest of their 
great men has, with great difficulty, caused a decree to 
issue for the teaching of the neglected masses, at least, 
in some rudimental learning, the purpose is likely to 


c 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


fail. The Priests demand that the Superstition shall be 
taught, and those of one Sect insist that they shall lead ; 
denouncing a differing Sect. Each Sect denounces every 
other: and, so far is the contention carried, that the 
teaching of the people is lost sight of; the special Super- 
stition of a Sect being held by its adherents far more 
important than merely “ Secular ” teaching ! It must 
] >e understood, that though, commonly, there is but little 
real reverence for the Supreme Lord, and less bene- 
volence, yet, such is the hold which the Bonzes have 
got of the imagination (by means of the devil and hell , 
which are greatly feared), that they are a power. Their 
demands, therefore, as to the education of the people,, 
will be respected; and the matter be left, largely, in 
their hands. This, owing to the bitterness existing 
among the Bonzes of the Sects, will cause the whole 
attempt to fail — to fail, as a general measure. The 
Lowest orders, for whom the design was chiefly devised,, 
do not hold the Bonzes in esteem, and will not be so 
readily led by them, even were the Priests themselves 
in accord. The Sects and the Priests not only fight 
upon this subject ; they are usually at strife upon any 
matter wherein their cooperation is desired. One leading- 
rule of the Sacred Writings commands, Peace. In respect 
of all who differ from them, these Sects say that the 
true meaning is, War ! Each Sect dislike's and de- 
nounces every other ; and the members of all damn to 
everlasting torments the whole human race but them- 
selves ! This place of eternal torture in “ fire and brim- 
stone ” [Zan-tan-li] is called Hell [Tlia-dee] ! 

In the ceaseless conflicts of the Sects , the most dread- 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


7 


ful crimes have been committed. The chief events re- 
corded in the annals of the Western Barbarians for 
many ages, and even to this time, have been only bloody 
wars, massacres, and vile intrigues, springing out of 
these conflicts : horrible crimes, again and again re- 
peated, and under circumstances too dreadful for belief. 
And when I have looked into the causes of these 
shocking events, there seemed to be no more involved 
than the manner of interpreting some obscure word or 
phrase in the Sacred Writings ; which to a wise man 
would be unimportant, however interpreted, or if never 
interpreted at all ! 

At this moment, the best intellects among the English 
(who boast that they are superior to all other Bar- 
barians), are hotly disputing as to the proper mode of 
wearing vestments, of holding or of not holding candles, 
of standing and posturing, and other matters equally 
important, when the Priests officiate in the Temples. 
The most trivial thing in the Superstition is esteemed of 
such consequence, that an error respecting it may be 
fatal to the “ soul ” [pan-tzi] in the future life ! Some 
of the most learned fe.ar the words and “ missives ” of 
the poor old man, who sits in Home (already referred to), 
and is worshipped by most Christians out of England 
(and by very many in it) as the only delegate of the 
Christ-god. They fear this Pope — fear that by his con- 
nection with the Evil One he will “ play the devil” 
among them. And though of precisely the same Christ- 
god Superstition, merely because of a difference of opinion 
as to the visible “Head” of that Superstition, really 
believe that this poor old man (called by the larger por- 


8 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


tion of Christians, with profound worship, Pope, Holy 
Father) may, by his wicked devices, allure into his 
worship, and bring under his power, the English Bar- 
barians ; to the everlasting destruction of their souls ! 

This notion of an Evil-one , universal among all the 
Barbarians, I never well comprehended. We have in 
our Flowery Kingdom Sects which believe in good and 
bad Spirits ; although our Literati smile at such things ; 
that is, in the vulgar forms. But the Christians assert 
that the Devil is too strong with men for the Supreme 
Lord — and the English Sect, say that the Pope is a very 
child of the Devil ! To be sure, their Sect is the 
feeblest of all, and merely separated from the great 
Lope-sect upon points not touching the superstition 
itself, and really on selfish and personal grounds. They 
know that the Pope justly claims a direct and regular 
succession from the Ckrist-God ; that he and his ad- 
herents, forming the vast majority of Christians (as all 
the sects call themselves) are believers with themselves 
in all the main “ clogmas ” [ka-nti] of the Superstition ; 
yet, none the less, they are the children of the Evil-one, 
and fit for Hell. And not the vulgar only, but the 
learned actually have a horror that the Pope may be 
again worshipped in England. A calamity too terrible 
for contemplation ! 

The Pope-worshipping Sect repay this hate with an 
equal abhorrence, and send the English heretics to the 
awful Hell, with the same satisfaction. 

All the Western Barbarians worship this new Christ- 
God, but, like our devoters of Fo, divided into many 
Sects, as I have already intimated. The benignant Fo } 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


9 


teaches his idolatrous devotees how to differ without 
hate. But, these Christians are always at strife, bitter 
and irreconcilable ; not as to essentials, evQn within the 
Superstition itself, (to say nothing of genuine morality), 
but as to things trivial and absurd. One will say, “ Be 
baptised or be damned to the eternal Hell J ” But 
another says, “ Baptism is only a symbol, one may be 
.saved without it.” Then, “ What is baptism ? ” Some 
say “ The Priest must immerse in water;” but another, 
“Ho, the Priest must sprinkle the face only.” Yet 
another, “Water is itself nothing, Priest nothing, unless 
before either, the baptism of the ‘ Holy Spirit ’ have 
occurred.” To perfect the “rite,” all say that the 
Priest must offer proper “ Incantations,” and generally 
in the Temples before the Idol. The contestants damn 
each other to everlasting torments for not being truly 
baptised. 

All the Sects say, “ You must believe in Christ or be 
damned ; ” but do not agree as to what this Belief is, 
and go on damning each the other for not having truly 
believed. 

It is impossible, however, to make intelligible the 
■countless vagaries of the Sects. They all fight under 
the same Christ-God, whom they all address, among 
other titles, as the “ Prince of Peace ” [Tchu-pe]. They 
all profess to follow His precepts, one of which is to 
love all men, even enemies (not friends , one of these 
angry disputants once said). These revered Precepts 
are written in the Sacred Boohs , and all tlie Sects swear 
their oaths upon these, and resort to them for the un- 
changeable rules of belief and practice. They all 


10 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


declare tliat the Sacred Writings are so plain that a 
man, “ though a fool, may understand,” and so clear, 

“ that he who runs may read.” Yet, they curse each 
other to the eternal torments for interpreting errone- 
ously. The truth is, that the Boolcs are most obscure, 
and differences of interpretation are inseperable 
from their use ; the terrible thing is, that Superstition 
has made these differences so important. The Sacred 
Writings are contradictory, and teeming with things 
indifferent, meaningless, or trivial. Written at widely 
different periods, by many hands, long ages ago, in an 
obscure and barbarous dialect, for different objects, their 
true meanings cannot always be rendered. But few, 
even of the Priest-class, can read them at all in the 
original. They are mainly Records of the Laws, cus- 
toms and wars of an obscure and terrible race, here and 
there interspersed with Invocations to the Gods of that 
race, and with their Proverbs, or words of wisdom. 
This tribe, called Jews , revolted from their masters, the 
Egyptians, and fled into a desert region lying west from 
the Hindoos. The man who led them in this revolt was- 
learned in the laws and customs of Egypt, and upon 
these he founded his own system. He declared himself 
to be directly called by Jah (Jehovah) to be their High 
Priest and J udge — that they were to obey him who received 
from Jah immediate instructions — that, in fact, to dis- 
obey him was to disobey Jah. That he was to lead them 
forth to found a new State, and that the power to 
announce the will of Jah alone resided with him and 
his successors, in this High Priesthood, and that they 
could only be successful over their enemies and prosper. 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


11 


by an implicit obedience to Jali, by the mouth of the 
High Priest. 

This event took place in our dynasty, Slicing; and our 
annals, referring to the Western Barbarians' of the an- 
cient times, make mention of some things — obscure 
movements of tribes, and of the great works performed 
by the Egyptians ; and of a servile race, Condemned to 
toil on these structures : and, possibly, this revolt of the 
Jews may have been contained in these references. 
However, the whole matter would have been lost ages 
ago, nor have left a trace, but for the singular circum- 
stance that the ancient records of these Jews have in a 
good measure escaped destruction. This happened not 
by any chance ; but from the fact that the High Priest, 
pretending to be the very mouth of Jali, made all his 
utterances Sacrecl ; and the Priesthood, inscribing and 
preserving the Jewish “ Rites,” worship and institutes 
of all kinds, guarded these writings with extreme care ; 
which the reverence of the Superstitious people en- 
hanced. Thus these Institutes of the Jews, declared to 
be by the Priests the very will of Jah, came to be 
“Holy” [Kan-ti] — inviolable ! Now, the Barbarians re- 
gard this preservation of the Jewish Records as an 
evidence of their divinity, and a clear warning to man 
not to disregard them ; and when they assert (as, by the 
High Priest, they constantly do), “ Thus saith the Lord- 
God- Jah,” they accept the declaration, and bow before 
it, as the very word of Jehovah! But we know that 
similar “ Sacrecl Writings ” are common in the East, and 
that these pretensions of the Priests are as universal as 
Superstition itself; in fact, form the chief features in it. 


12 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

The new Clirist-God was a Jew; and, though, sin- 
gularly enough, in the words ascribed to him, in those 
parts of the Sacred Writings assigned to him and his 
immediate followers, there are bitter denunciations of 
the spirit and of the letter of much in the old, Priest- 
made part; and he distinctly says that his office is to 
give new and reformed rules; none the less, his imme- 
diate followers, being Jews, naturally looked upon him 
as Great High-Priest, speaking as did their ancient Higli- 
Priest (Higli-Priest and Clirist-God) — the very “ mouth- 
piece ” [Mu-te-pi] of Jehovah ! Adding to the Higli- 
Priest a Messiahsliip ; for they believed him to be the 
mysterious Messiah of their Sacred Writings, foretold 
by their wise Seers long ages before ! The great High- 
Priest who should deliver them from all their enemies, 
and lead them to a universal dominion ! Very few of 
the Jews themselves, however, adhered to this opinion: 
in fact, Christ w T as put to a shameful death by them as 
an Imposter [Kon-ti-fe]. And by the Jews, in general, 
he was and is still considered to be a misguided fanatic. 
The Romans at this time held the Jewish province, and 
continued to do so. Meantime, the followers of the 
Clirist-God, as I have said, spread by degrees, after his 
death, into other Roman provinces. Hew Superstitions 
were often greedily received; the Western Barbarians 
had always readily adopted new gods, and new Super- 
stitions. This idolatry was, however, held in contempt 
by the learned ; but it slowly spread among the lower 
orders, and penetrated to Rome itself. 

The Roman soldiery, in some instances, made it con- 
spicuous; and, after some generations, a Roman Emperor, 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


13 


thinking lie saw some miraculous evidence of its divine 
force (in the workings of his own dark imagination), 
forced this new Superstition upon his Empire. That 
Empire embraced the Western world. The Barbarians 
who succeeded to them adopted, largely, their laws; 
their worship, and their religious rites. Thus, these 
Western Barbarians are Christians; and, though they 
detest the Jews none the less, hold to their “ Sacred 
Writings ” as the very words of Jah — whom they also 
worship ! This they do because they follow the few 
Jews who accepted Christ as Jehovah, rather than the 
whole ‘people who rejected him ! — follow the few who 
accepted Christ as the Messiah-God promised in the 
“ Sacred Writings and hold with them that these are 
the only Revelation of the will of Jehovah to man ! By 
Jehovah meaning the only Supreme Lord of Heaven ! 

The remarkable thing is that this enormous pretension 
is not ascribed to Christ , hut is obscurely announced 
in certain writings of the early Christian Jews. Thus, 
these Western Barbarians, scoffing the name of Jew, 
accept of his ancient and ferocious god, and adopt the 
barbarous rites of a blood-thirsty and obscure tribe of 
the desert, make the records kept by the Priests of the 
tribe Sacred , and curse to Hell the whole Jewish race for 
not accepting the interpretation of a few of their number 
— the few, and only a few, worshipping Christ as the 
true Christ- God. That is, these Barbarians better under- 
stand the subject than the people into whose hands the 
matter was entrusted by Divine wisdom. 

When one considers, then, the foundation of the great 
worship of the West, one wonders not at the Sects and 


14 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

strife. Founded in dark and cruel institutes of ignorant 
antiquity, tlie attempt to engraft a better system failed, 
because in this attempt the Priests were still Jews, who, 
adoring Christ, adored him as Jehovah and a Jewish 
High-Priest. What follows becomes more intelligible, 
but not less astonishing. The new worship has its 
divine Revelation from Jah, interpreted by its Priests, 
who introduce Christ as their great High-Priest, and 
the Christ- Jehovah of the new worship. All are damned 
to the everlasting Hell who do not believe these Priests, 
worship this new god, and accept as the very Divine 
Word these Jewish writings. This superstition suited 
the dark imaginations of the Barbarians, and was, in 
truth, not unlike their own, and may have had a com- 
mon origin. 

The intellectual activity of succeeding ages has been 
mainly devoted to these S acred Writings ; and the dis- 
putes, as to the meaning, never-ending. Every word 
has been criticised. Sects have been formed upon a 
syllable — appearing and disappearing. How one would 
madly starve, another feast. Some fanatics would live 
in caves, some on inaccessible mountains ; some tor- 
tured themselves, and held women to be unclean unless 
they married Christ. Some would only shout their in- 
vocations, others would only commune with the god 
inside. Some woidd kneel, others would stand. Some- 
times a sect more wild than usual would organise vast 
bands of warriors, all wearing a symbol to show that 
they were Christians — usually a cross (because the Jews 
put Christ to death by hanging him upon a cross) ; and, 
placing Priests at the head, would rush to distant parts to 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


15 


root out pagans. These dreadful slaughters of distant 
tribes were called Crossades (from the symbol referred to). 
♦Some Sects destroyed society by another fanaticism ; 
they forced men to live in caves or in dark stone cham- 
bers, shut off from all cheerful life, and from all inter- 
course with women ; where they should constantly make 
invocations, lash themselves with thongs, and half-starve 
themselves ; having skulls to hold before them, and awful 
paintings of Hell and devils to horrify them, — if per- 
chance they may propitiate the Christ- God, Jali. Women 
also being driven into similar, horrid imprisonment in 
.stone vaults, where the whole life is spent in invoca- 
tions and sufferings, without so much as seeing any 
man. 

These and numberless other things grow out of the 
interpretations, ever-changing, of the Sacred, Writings ; 
which, to the dark imaginings of Priests and devotees, 
seem ever to give such utterances as fit to their feelings. 
To the Priests they are an unfailing arsenal of power. 

Por many ages nearly all the Books written — mainly 
by Priests — were in respect of the Sacred Writings; called 
commentaries, homilies, disputations, doctrines, invoca- 
tions, sermons ; endless in name, and nameless. 

This Literature is less in repute than formerly, and 
immense collections of huge writings are now rotting 
away in the dismal alcoves of Libraries [Buk-sti], as 
great stone buildings for keeping Books are called. 
This Literature is rarely looked at now, excepting by the 
Priests and antiquaries [ol-olphoo] ; much of it is obso- 
lete in form, or in the Eoman — not now so much in 
vogue as formerly. A large portion of the writings, and 


16 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

a larger portion of the “speeches” [phi-lu-tin], however, 
are devoted to the same subject; but the style is modern, 
and less obscure, though not less deformed by a dark 
and irrational superstition. 

To my poor mind, were all these innumerable pro- 
ductions of gloomy and bewildered intellects — misled 
and crazed by a monstrous Idolatry — swept for ever 
away, nothing would be lost — nothing, unless the most 
astonishing monument ever builded by man. However, 
it is doubtful whether to lose even this is not better 
than to have anything left of so monstrous a Pretension. 

Whilst thus the Barbarian brain wasted itself in this 
wretched work, and piled up its ponderous tomes of use- 
less, and worse than useless, Literature — holding know- 
ledge in general as vain, and Science , when, in Priestly 
interpretation, not according to the barbarous Sacred 
Writings , as a thing to be accursed — activity of body, 
during the same ages, did its dreadful work. Directed 
by the Priests, one Sect denounced another as damnable , 
and the stronger attempted to destroy the weaker by 
“ fire and sword.” Hew contentions would arise, to be 
crushed out by bloody execution; only to spring up 
again, to be again extirpated. Every Sect as it appeared 
would fight for supremacy. All worshipped the Christ- 
God, and sought the same Sacred Writings; and all 
invoked His aid, and pointed to those Writings for their 
authority — to exterminate a weaker Sect; to deliver over 
whole provinces to rapine, slaughter, burning, destruc- 
tion ; cities in conflagration ; women, children, as well 
as men, not merely slain, but put to death with tortures 
unspeakable ; massacres, by treachery and surprise, of 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


17 


thousands and tens of thousands ! To such work was 
the activity of body largely directed by Priests and the 
savage chiefs. For ages these atrocities were perpe- 
trated. History has no parallel of horror; human 
nature seemed to have become possessed by the Devil 
of the Superstition, and exceeded its diabolism [pau-di- 
ki]. In the name of Christ, fire, slaughter, and rapine, 
spread over the whole immense world. Wherever the 
Priests of this dark superstition became powerful, every- 
thing which opposed them perished. It was a cardinal 
principle that men could be saved from the dreadful 
Hell only by the aid of the Priests, and by accepting of 
their interpretation of the Sacred Writings . The system 
erected by the Priests was called the Church , and none 
could be saved unless they were in the pale of Holy 
Church — unless they, in the manner directed by the 
Priests, performed all the rites of worship. These 
not merely were directed to the worship of the Sacred 
Writings, the Christ-God and Jah, but to the mother 
of God and to the Pope. In England, by and by, the 
Priests threw off the Eoman Pope, and set up the Eng- 
lish Sovereign, for the time being, as Pope, and put men 
and women to death by fire and torture for still prefer- 
ring the older Idol. 

Nor is this madness, this fanatical fury, wholly ex- 
pended. Education has not yet raised these Western 
tribes into the enjoyment of a rational worship — of a 
rational morality — of a life, calm, tolerant, and benefi- 
cent. They have never attained the civilisation of our 
Central Kingdom, and to the wisdom of our illuminated 
Confutse. 


c 


18 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

There is morality to be found among them, and a few 
worship, purely and simply, the God of Heaven, and 
look with untroubled hearts upon the senseless super- 
stitions. The masses are, however, still held in them ; 
and the High Castes either hold to the prevailing idola- 
tries, or pretend to do so. This old Jewish Worship, 
with its rites and pretensions, fastened upon tribes by 
Priests and the Eoman power, is still dominant in the 
West. In England to-day it is the same superstition, 
only the Queen is Pope, instead of the Man at Eome. 
For this the English are damned , as worthy of Hell-fire, 
by Eoman Pope worshippers ; and the English return 
the curse. A constant Bugbear [Do-nki] to the English 
mind is, that the more powerful Eoman Pope may get 
into England again ; then, what horrors ! Nor does this 
frightful chimera alone alarm the lower people ; the 
most learned Englishmen, and their wisest, exert their 
minds in writing and in preaching against this terrible 
thing. 

To me this seemed strange — incredible. The English 
Barbarians are, in general, sharp enough ; they are 
learned in many things ; they can see the absurdity 
of Eastern superstitions ; they denounce the Eoman- 
Pope worship as worthy of hell; but they worship a 
Queen-pope at home, and the same Christ- Jah-god and 
“sacred writings” which the Eomans worship. They 
believe, as do the Eoman-pope worshippers, that all 
who do not worship the sacred writings and the Clirist- 
Jah-god , and accept of the Priest -Church, will inevitably 
burn for ever in fires of Hell ; yet, because of the 
separation as to Pope worship, each regards the other 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


19 


■sect witli a hatred only appeased by sending each the 
other to the dreadful Hell! How incredible that the 
human mind — the active and skilled human mind — 
should alarm itself and others for fear of the worship of 
a Pope — a man : and really think the condition of the 
human soul would be hopelessly wretched — if it mis- 
took the right object of worship — the idol of Rome, or 
the idol of England ! The intellect truly employed 
would be directed to the overthrow of the superstition 
and its objects of idolatry altogether. The Roman or 
the English Pope — the Roman or the English sect — 
what matter ? Both alike indifferent and worthless to 
.an intelligent worshipper of the Supreme Lord of 
Heaven (Hoang-chan-ti). His worship is elevating, 
supporting a clean morality, tolerant, benevolent — a 
morality found wherever man is found ; debased, more 
or less, as man be debased, or as he may be sunken in 
vicious or cruel superstitions. 

To restore a pure worship is to help on a better 
civilisation among the Barbarians. Nor would a respect 
for the morality ascribed to Christ do other than help 
in the same way. The misfortune is, that that morality 
has been overlaid with Jewish and Priestly additions 
and inventions. There are some of the English literati 
who dare to teach a purer worship, discarding the 
superstition in its grosser pretensions ; but they are not 
listened to. 

It is difficult to understand what is accepted as true 
by the differing Sects — but their differences may be dis- 
regarded — and I will refer to what all the Sects of the 
Great Superstition subscribe to, aside from the matter 
-of Pope. 


20 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


One, only God : in three parts— each part a very 
rod ! 

1. The Judge and destroyer of mankind ; for all 
are damned to Hell ! This is the Jewish Jah. 

2. The Son, begotten of Jah upon an immaculate 
virgin. Sent to mediate with J ah and appease 
His fierce anger, so that some may escape Hell — 
that is, those few who have “ believed in” and wor- 
shiped the Son, the Father, and other things. For 
as to what is to he believed, form the points of 
endless contention, as I have hinted. 

3. The Holy Ghost, or Comforter, whose function 
I have never comprehended. It appears to be a 
divine Effluence, entering into the devotee, to warm,, 
exalt, and enlighten him; especially to comfort 
him and to support him in his dire conflicts with 
“ the flesh, hell, and the devil ” (as the Superstition 
reads). It is an “awful mystery” in the rites T 
and has crazed many a worshipper ; for those who 
fancy themselves to be in the possession of this 
Effluence feel like gods, and conduct themselves 
as scarcely accountable to mortal coiitrol ; though 
others feel an absorption, as they say, into the 
divine nature — a notion like that of some of the 
fanatics of the Hindoos and of the East. 

As powerful, indeed more powerful over men, is the 
terrible Satan — Devil , Evil One. There are many names 
and shapes. This monster was once (according to the 
superstition) chained down in hell-fire, for having raised 
a rebellion against Jah, who, however, let him loose 
again, and gave him wings to fly from his fiery prison to 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


21 


the world, where he should wage war with Jali, in a 
covert way, by his craft drawing away mankind from 
Jah to his worship and to his designs ; that, however, 
he should never prevail to overthrow Jah, and the only 
result would be to increase the number of the countless 
ilevils of low degree already in Hell, by adding to them 
nearly the whole human race ! — for to that torment all 
go who do not worship in spirit and in truth, according 
to the superstition. This awful strife between Satan 
and Jah always proceeds. The Priests say that, for 
“ some wise purpose,” Jah suffers Satan to succeed in 
his snares ; and his victims continually fall into the 
everlasting place of Fire, prepared for the devil and his 
victims. The Priests say that this wholesale destruc- 
tion of mankind was a thing predetermined by Jah, 
and that he created (.the Devil to accomplish the work ; 
but they do not explain why the torments should be 
•everlasting; as men are themselves short-lived, one 
would think a reasonable superstitition might have 
limited the fire-torture to, say, twice the length of 
mortal life ! 

Our Literati will readily recognise some parts of this 
horrible superstition — perhaps the main features, as 
Oriental — going back to the dimmest dawn of tradition, 
and to the early and grotesque forms of the human 
imagination, dark and uninstructed. The Hell , however, 
is a terrific expansion of the horrible, suited to these 
Strange Barbarians. 

Besides these great deities, there are Arch-angels, 
Angels, Saints male and female, Spirits good and bad 
— the latter Imps of Satan (whatever the word may 


22 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

mean), who enter into human beings, and take on the- 
human form : in this disguise, called Ghosts, Wizards,. 
Bogies, Witches. However, good people can tell these 
devilish Imps , and avoid them (so they he good , that is, 
true worshippers of the Idols of the Superstition) ; for the 
smell of brimstone sticks to them, and the tail and cleft- 
hoof — inseparable from devil-imps — will always show 
somewhere to the good. But, if unawares the Imps catch 
them, they are only to say Christ , or Jehovah , or call on 
some Saint, and the Imp will at once vanish like a vapor! 

It will be seen that this Superstition is as populous 
with gods and spirits as are any in the East, and some 
of the forms more frightful and ridiculous. 

There are dissentients — some, who, not dissenting 
to the chief gods, yet conjecture that the good and bad 
spirits merely symbolize good and bad propensities in 
human nature. But real objectors are few and timid, 
afraid of punishment — if not here, then after death. 
Eor the Superstition so long rooted has engrafted its 
terrors in the very blood, and men are born with the 
Horror in them ; they can never free themselves from 
it. A few, however, do dissent ; but, like our Literati ,. 
they do not care to oppose vulgar ignorance openly, nor 
is it safe; they feel a contempt, but repress its too- 
marked expression. “ Why render themselves uselessly 
odious ? ” they say. The Priests, very likely, often 
disbelieve much of what they say ^ but not unlikely their 
emoluments {livings) have some effect upon their conduct, 
though not upon their private convictions. In our 
Flowery Land there is a maxim : “ A common man’s 
brain is in his belly.” 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


23 


I have had a High Bonze say to me, when I have 
suggested some objections, “ Oh, we do not know any- 
thing about such things ; the morality is good, and we 
need a devil for women, children, and the common 
people : it is safer to let things alone.” 

“ But,” I have rejoined, “ Is it quite well, in the long 
run, to teach falsely ? ” 

“ I do not say it is well to teach falsely. I said, I do 
not know — who does ? Men more learned than I 
believe strongly, men wiser than I have “ gone to the 
stake and perished by slow torture of fire,” made 
martyrs (we have no such word) of themselves, rather 
than deny these things. They were probably right. X 
simply take things as they are.” 

“But,” I replied, “surely misguided fanaticism, of 
which the world is full, is proof of nothing whatever, 
unless of the sincerity of the madman — not always of 
that.” 

“ My dear Ali-Chin, you are very quick, and no fool 
(I beg pardon), hut you do not understand it. The 
Superstitious parts are mere forms; and as to the horrors, 
as you call them, I think them indispensable ; they are 
better than the Police.” (The Police are the officers who 
arrest offenders in the streets and public places.) 

The Bonzes who talk in this way are, usually, what 
are derisively termed “hunting and fishing” Bonzes, 
not remarkable for strictness of conduct, though quite 
as likely to stick to the Temple^, like our Bonzes ; they 
are not likely to pull down the roof which shelters them. 
The Superstition is less revered than formerly, and its 
wilder parts are less obtrusive. Its pretensions are not 


24 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

moderated in terms, but the practice is more moderate. 
Sects do not put each other to death, at present, though 
so much of the old bitterness remains that no one can 
say what horrors might follow upon unexpected changes. 
Gradually wise men endeavour to drop out of sight the 
Jewish and Priestly creations, and, inculcating morality, 
take the Christ-Gocl as symbol of Charity, and his moral 
precepts as the basis of a moral Philosophy ; or (to be 
less offensive to the Superstition) Christian Philosophy. 
In this way they seize hold of what is true in the Great 
Idolatry, and endeavour to ignore the grosser parts 
altogether. They hope to bring about a rational worship 
without violence, by a gradual disuse and forgetfulness 
of the irrational, and are willing to yield something to 
ignorance, if they can by that means, in the end, en- 
lighten it. They allow to Christ an exalted character, 
large in the divine faculty, and divine as man is divine 
in possessing that faculty — to say, the moral. In this, 
much as we see in our exalted Confutze , who lived and 
taught long before the period ascribed to Christ, and 
from whom the Western tribes, doubtless, received their 
moral notions. 

The religion of wise men is the same at all times 
and everywhere. Wherever some intellectual culture 
exists, men will be found who understand and practise 
the rules of morality; and wherever this is general, 
there is the higher civilisation. This higher civilisation, 
resting upon a general morality among a people, has for 
its base a rational recognition of the Sovereign Lord and 
man’s dependency and accountability to Him ; Father 
of men ; and Himself the source of this morality. He, 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


25 


in this faculty , reveals Himself, and shows to man his 
sole claim to a divine relationship. 

This higher civilisation does not mistake intellectual 
achievement as its title to enlightenment. The sharp 
and active brain is quite consistent with the base and 
low ; and may be indifferent to superstitions and de- 
grading idolatries. But the moral faculty, active and 
large, at once refines and exalts the intellect; then 
men are truly wise, and degrading superstitions die. 

The object, then, to which the true worshipper aims, 
•everywhere, is to bring man out of a debased into an 
enlightened recognition of the Supreme Lord and of 
this simple relationship ; to teach that the human race 
form one family, united indissolubly to each other, and 
to the Supreme Lord, by the divine moral faculty, to 
which the intellect is subordinate; that by this they 
may be all truly enlightened, and worship simply and 
truly, with grateful and serene trust, the Supreme Lord 
and Father of all. This worship can never be other 
than beneficent. It is only the expression of gratitude ; 
the desire for better wisdom, for still larger charity, a 
well-doing and serene life, at peace with itself and all 
beside. 

To a civilisation resting upon this simple and direct 
worship and morality, few barbarians have any percep- 
tion ; their pride and gross superstitions have made it 
impossible. 

The temples are often very grand and beautiful, built 
of hewn stone, with lofty domes, towers, bells, and 
spires. The priests are very numerous, and divided 
into many ranks. The lowest are the curates, who do 


26 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


the “ dirty ” work, as the English phrase it. They are 
but little better than beggars, though mentally often 
superior to those who half-starve them, whilst the higher 
ranks (by whom they are hired) live luxuriously. 

The S acred Writings say that Christ was Himself a 
mendicant, and that his first followers were but little 
better; that he denounced, in bitter terms, all pride 
and luxury; that the true object of life was not to' 
think of oneself, but of others ; to give to the poor, help 
the distressed, and the like. In truth, this benevolence 
and the moral precepts of Christ (as I have already said) 
are its salt [pho-zi]. 

I have, in the temples, heard a High-Caste Priest elo- 
quently exalt this benevolence, and pointing out the 
divine charity of the Master (as Christ is often called) , 
— heard him say, “ My brethren, give to the poor, help 
the suffering, do good whenever you can, give your all 
to Christ.” 

I have said, “ This is excellent ; I will talk with this 
benevolent Bonze.” On one occasion I did so. The 
High-Caste had dined; I was ushered into his presence; 
the fruits and the wine were still before him. I ap- 
proached and bowed low before him, and dared to ask, 
“ Is your illustrious body well ?” He slightly nodded, 
and waved me to a seat. I expressed my admiration 
of his benevolent morality, as shown in his exalted 
invocation in the Temple. “ Oh, that was of course ; we 
do not rely upon morality.” I begged pardon, but did 
not understand. He added : “ Morals are well, in their 
way. Charity is a good thing, if the purpose be sancti* 
fied ; but nobody is saved by his goodness.” He saw 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


27 


my bewilderment. “ Oh, I deplore your darkness ; I 
grieve over the errors, too fatal, even in our Christian 
land.” I could only how. He continued : “ When will 
the darkness of superstition give way, in the East, to our 
glorious religion ? When will the worship of Christ 
spread over the whole benighted world ?” I ventured 
to hint that I had called to speak my thought of his 
noble benevolence. “ Oh, yes, we must give. But the 
true worship — knowledge of, and belief in, the Redeemer 
— ah ! that is the only means of salvation ; those are 
the vital things.” I said, “ The poor are everywhere, 
and need help.” He looked at me suspiciously for a 
moment, and then brightened ; he saw I had not come 
to ask for anything. “ Yes ; the Scriptures say, ‘ The 
poor ye will always have with ye/ and we cannot alter 
it.” ££ I am told that your Low-Caste Priests are good 
men, and do nearly all the work. I know one of these 
who is very kind. Your benevolence is like our Con - 
futze , who had a tender regard for the poor and dis- 
tressed.” 

“ Ah, our divine Master taught charity; but one must 
go higher than that.” “ Pardon my poor mind, but do 
you not really give to the poor, in your temples, as your 
exalted Wisdom taught?” “Ah-Chin, you mistake; 
but one must overlook your darkness of mind — no 
offence — Society takes all I can spare, and I give to 
Curates from my revenue.” t£ Society ? I do not com- 
prehend.” ££ Well, no ; you know nothing of the inces- 
sant calls. We must visit and receive visits ; keep up 
equipages, servants ; then there are always poor rela- 
tions, and the poor Curates (these are the £ poor relations’ 


28* RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

of our order) .” “ But the Curates are poorly paid, I am 
told, and deserving.” “ The Curates are well enough ; 
hut more fuss is made than need he. I was a Curate, 
Ali-Chin, myself” “ Your illustrious did not need aid, 
perhaps ?” “ Well, yes ; I got Curate-fare — cold shoul- 

ders of mutton, and other colder shoulders.” I saw that 
there was something which I was not to understand. 
u Pardon, hut the Society is not to he put before the 
Christ-God ?” “ I heg, sir, you speak not in that way. 

I pardon much to your darkness. Do not again profane 
our blessed and holy religion.” 

This alarmed me ; I did not know what portended. 
I bowed very low, and humbly craved permission to take 
my leave. I really feared punishment— perhaps of the 
Cangue , or pan-tsee. I afterwards knew, no more than 
the reproof of the High-Bonze was imminent ; though, 
had the common people caught a pagan Cliinee who 
had dared to speak, in their notion, disrespectfully of 
their Idols, he would he fortunate to have no worse 
treatment than a clucking in a horse-pond [phu-it-mu- 
dsi-wo]. 

What hut slow progress is to he expected when a 
people — even the Literati — are so superstitious ? for the 
errors there, make obstacles everywhere. It is hut just 
now that nearly the whole population of the province 
of Ireland (one-third of the kingdom) have been re- 
lieved from maintaining the English Idolatry, though 
they detested it. 

The intolerance of the devotees prevents better men 
from reforming abuses, even in the Temples. If a 
Priest dare to moderate the excessive absurdities of the 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


29 


Superstition, lie at once endangers liis Living , and is 
likely to be degraded and driven forth to neglect and 
poverty. 

I, myself, knew a Wise Priest of rank, who very 
innocently published some comments upon the Sacred 
Writings , wherein he showed that the statements as 
they stood were simply impossible. Now, as I have 
said, the Sacred Writings are worshipped ; and to doubt 
that they are the words of Jah is horrible — formerly 
punished by death, now by degradation, excommuni- 
cation , and loss of revenue. This poor man did not 
express any doubt ; he merely pointed out an error, 
which might be there somehow , and which he thought, 
in his simplicity, should be removed or explained. But 
the Canon [ban-gwo] of the Superstition allowed of no 
comment of that sort as to the Word of Jehovah ! and 
cursed out of the Temples, with his Priest-robe torn off, 
and his money stript from him, the daring blasphemer 
[zw-an] must go ! 

This is an astonishing Canon ; for if one allows that 
four thousand years ago Jehovah spoke words which 
were then inscribed — if one allows that the Jewish 
Priests kept annals and chronicles, and down through 
different ages preserved and added to their histories — 
if one allows that the followers of Christ after his 
death recorded some things concerning his life and his 
teachings, and that other followers wrote letters upon 
these matters — yet, one must also allow that all these 
writings were written at different periods, for different 
purposes, and in different and scattered records ; all in 
obscure and unknown tongues; that they have been 


30 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


copied, re-copied, translated — that there are various 
versions — that, in respect of their meaning, and even 
of their right to he called a part of the Word, the 
highest and best cannot agree ! Yet, through all the 
changes of great periods of time — through darkness, 
and wars, and every sort of ignorant credulity — through 
everything ! every word of this huge collection of Ob- 
scure and Ancient Literature, and of an Obscure and 
Barbarous People, remains exactly as originally delivered 
by Jah!” “Oh, certainly,” says his devotee, “because 
He has preserved them” “ Yes ; but when a statement 
is absolutely impossible — as where ‘ the water covered 
the whole earth.’ ” “Oh, the Word does not deal with 
Science.” I think not; Jah was not a god of science — 
he was, in fact, just as ignorant as the Jew-Friests who 
pretended to speak his Word ! 

Yet this inconceivable Canon goes further, and de- 
clares that this Word is the absolute, and only, and 
perfect Revelation of the Deity to man ; that it contains 
the only truth, and is the only way by which man, 
under damnation already, can have any hope, however 
small, of escaping the everlasting fire of hell ! Upon 
this Canon all the Sects of the Western Barbarians 
erect their Idolatries — they call them Churches; but, 
us we have seen, they are for ever fighting as to the 
meaning of these very Sacred Writings ! 

Another Canon is, that Christ is the very God (Jali), 
and that the Holy Ghost is also the very God. And to 
deny this Canon is to go to Hell ! Nor does it at all 
matter that one has never heard of this, nor that he 
could have never heard. The whole race of man before 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


31 


Christ was born, to this very hour, are either burning, 
and will surely burn, in everlasting fires of Hell, unless 
they have believed in this Canon ! And Jali contrived 
that all this should be exactly so ; though he did also 
plan from all time that his Son, Christ, should go down 
to the world and get himself put to death ; and thus the 
great Jali, appeased by the sight of his Son dying on a 
cross , should be so far softened that some would escape 
Hell ! Only a very few ; because no one could escape 
unless he knew, and believed, and accepted, and was 
born into the very blood of this son ! A mystery so 
incomprehensible, that Christians do not pretend to 
solve it, and are always trembling for fear that they 
may not have been born again ! 

How, under these circumstances, as Jali cruelly ne- 
glected to let the Heathen know that they could be 
saved — (indeed, they suspect no danger) — the good- 
hearted devotees of the Barbarians employ Bonzes to 
go over the great Seas to the Heathen , to carry them the 
glad tidings ! These delegates from the Barbarians are 
called Missionaries , and the Temples and devotees are 
full of prayers and invocations for the Salvation of the 
Heathen ! by which is meant the worship of the Bar- 
barians duly adopted in our Central Kingdom, and in 
other regions of the wide world not under the sway of 
these Idolaters 1 

But our Flowery Kingdom, from so long ago as dy- 
nasty Whey-Song , has known of these missionaries ; and 
we know of some now amongst us. They are harmless 
enough, and quite fully understand how to adapt them- 
selves to circumstances, and draw the money necessary 


32 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

to tlieir support. The Bonzes of the Koman Sect are 
the wisest, and care for nothing very idolatrous ; if a 
convert will go so far as to he baptised [Wa-shti] they 
are quite content. They seek to be useful, and keep the 
obnoxious features of the Superstition out of sight. 

There are also some Jews in our Central Kingdom. 
They have been known in some provinces from a time 
long before the supposed birth of Christ. 

Another Sect of the region of the Western Barbarians 
(in the Eastern parts), who worship a god named Mo- 
hammed — a Sect merely an offshoot of the Jews, from 
whom they adopted the most part of their superstition, 
and equally fierce and intolerant — penetrated into our 
Elowery Land soon after its rise. It was about six 
hundred years ago that they established a slight hold 
amongst us, and are still to be found — never here in 
their weakness exhibiting any of the savagery of strength. 
In a large portion of the Western regions they were for 
ages as cruel and destructive as the Christians, and, in 
fact, waged wars with them for absolute mastery, during 
which all the horrors usual to those dreadful Barbarians- 
terrified and maddened mankind. Finally, these twcv 
Sects, Christian and Mohammedan (so styled), divided 
the whole region of the Western Barbarians among 
themselves ! and from that time have been less quarrel- 
some with each other, than have the Sects of the two 
great divisions in their intestine conflicts. 

Thus, it will be acknowledged that the Barbarians 
are well disposed sometimes towards us, — or at any rate 
the devotees of their Superstition are, — and we must 
gratefully thank them for their sincere anxiety for the 


OF 4 THE ENGLISH. 


33 


salvation of onr souU; for onr bodies tliat is another 
matter. They think us ignorant, even of the ordinary 
rules of morality. They do not know that before Greece 
or Rome had appeared in history, our worship of the 
Sovereign Lord and our moral precepts were established, 
purely, simply, and that our annals show that the 
Grecian and Roman culture largely borrowed from ours, 
though not the Superstitions. These were derived, pro- 
bably, from some source common to the Western Bar- 
barians, likely Egyptian, and though modified by habits 
of tribes, retained more or less of those original traits 
which appear in all. 

The Temples are numerous, though often quite de- 
serted except by the Bonzes and their servants. The 
same revenues are taken by the Bonze whether there be 
any worshippers or not, and sometimes the prayers are 
said or sung to empty forms (seats) — not more empty 
than the prayers. 

Next in rank to Curates come Rectors, who enjoy 
good Livings [mo-tsi], and have fine houses and gardens. 
The other higher ranks, are Arch-Bishops, Bishops, 
called Lords [tchou], who live in stone palaces , and have 
great revenues; but Society robs them of the larger 
portion of this revenue, — a barbarous injustice, — leaving 
the poor Lords quite destitute. I was told this; but 
I never happened to meet with a starved Bishop. 

These Tcliou - Bonzes intermarry with the High-Castes, 
perform the marriage ceremony for them, wait upon the 
Queen-with invocations to the gods — baptize royal in- 
fants; that is, sprinkle them when eight days old, in 
the Temples with invocations, with many ceremonies, 

D 


34 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


after which they are safe from the devil and the dread- 
ful Hell ; these are the chief duties of their exalted office. 
As great lay-lords (that is Lords not of the soul hut of 
the clay — lay), they sit in the great Law-making Council ; 
where their function is, to see to it that no law he made 
which in any way can injure the temples, or their own 
revenues and powers. One does not see that they are 
remarkable for the practice of the virtues which they 
teach; nor that they are meek and lowly followers of 
the Lamb (Christ-god) ; or that they very often “ wash 
the feet of the disciples ” — although they are commanded 
in the S acred Writings to do these things ; and also to 
succour the distressed, give to the poor, and other like 
acts of charity. I should have been pleased to see a 
Bishop kneeling and washing the feet of some devotee ! 
but I never did. They discharge those duties which 
they owe to Society with honourable punctuality : keep- 
ing up neat equipages, sleek horses, and pious servants ; 
and wearing the garb of their order with a scrupulous 
exactness, even to the slioe-buckles. 

They quote the example of the Christ-god, who, when 
on the world, made from common water good wine ; and 
are very choice respecting this article. As to charity, 
they are so robbed by Society, that, what with gifts for 
the Heathen , and poor relations (for whom they are also 
expected to get good Livings in the Temples), they have 
but little to spare. Then, too, “Charity begins at home” 
(the Sacred Writings declare), and he who does not take 
care of himself, and those who are dependent upon him, 
“is worse than a Heathen” (This is again from the 
Sacred words). Lor those poor and benighted creatures, 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


35 

sunk in dreadful idolatries, indeed, something must be 
put into the Missionary box ! 

The different Sects quarrel as to particular modes of 
Worship in the Temples. Some will have candles 
lighted, to please the idols ; others say, they do not need 
candles, and are offended by the smell. Some say, You 
should make Invocations kneeling ; others say, standing. 
Some say, one should face to the East, others say, to the 
North. Some say, you should pray aloud ; others say, 
silent prayers are more acceptable. And very sharp quar- 
rels and new Sects arise upon these matters. None are 
allowed to worship in Temples but devotees of the High- 
Oaste Sect. All others must worship in Temples not digni- 
fied by a loftier name than Conventicle, Chapel , or the like. 

I will state, briefly, what is the ceremony of Idolatry 
in the great Queen-pope Sect. She is worshipped in the 
Invocations, and receives, with her children, a place in 
the prayers. 

When the great bells sound from the high, stone 
towers, the High-Castes go, richly dressed, into the 
Temples, uncover and bow the heads to the Idol, in 
silence — making Invocations, silently. By the com- 
mand of the Jewish Sacred Writings the Seventh day 
(so, continuously, for ever) is devoted to the grand Wor- 
ship in the Temples. This is a marked thing among the 
Western Barbarians — this devotion of one day in every 
seven to the Worship of Jah — as ordered in the Sacred 
Word. It is declared to be Jah’s day — Holy- day. And 
it is so sacred, that there is danger of Hell to him who 
“ Does any work or play 
Upon the sacred day,” 


36 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


as the mongrel verse-makers of the Superstition have 
it ! And the Priests vehemently denounce all who do 
not worship upon that day. 

Some object to so great strictness; and the quarrel, 
as usual, is hitter between the strict and the not-so-strict 
Holy-day worshippers. 

Those not-so-strict think that the poor, who work six 
days, should be allowed to go to the places of amuse- 
ment on the seventh, and enjoy harmless recreations. 
The strict say they should be punished for desecrating 
the day by their neglect of worship ; yet the poor can- 
not go in dirt and rags to the Temples. The High- 
Castes go there in rich attire, and would be incommoded 
by the poor — indeed, the High and Low Castes never 
mingle, not even in their worship. In truth, not many 
of any rank attend upon the Priests in worship. The 
devotees are mostly old women and older men, a few 
young people attracted by opposite attraction of sex, 
children and servants ; a few pauper children may 
be huddled into a dark corner for fear of offending the 
idols. 

The Priests face the Idol, and make Incantations, 
which are repeated, age after age, without any altera- 
tion ; no Priest dare to make any the least change ; the 
wrath of the gods would follow. 

One peculiarity is, that the most abject confessions are 
made, by Priests and devotees, of heinous offences — 
making eternal punishment fitly their due. They beg 
for pardon and that salvation (meaning deliverance from 
the awful Hell) may be granted, not for any good in 
them, but wholly for the sake of the Son — the Christ. 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


37 


On my first attendance in a Temple, wlien I heard these 
fearful confessions and looked upon the fine women; the 
carefully dressed worshippers, I thought, “ How dreadful, 
these Higli-Castes such wretches — incredible ! ” 

I afterwards discovered that the sins [ly-ie], the 
offences confessed, were merely ecclesiastical (we have no 
term like it) ; nobody ever really confesses any wrong 
which he may have committed. 

The grand act of worship is, however, the Crcecl (here 
again in our Flowery Land we have no term) — an In- 
vocation and Declaration wherein all swear, under the 
awful penalty of eternal burnings in Hell and torments 
of Satan for ever, that they believe and worship all 
points of the Superstition with thankful hearts and 
undoubting minds. Eepeating after the Priest, all 
standing, facing the Idol, uncovered, with eyes down- 
cast and deep abasement. 

The Incantations do not differ from the Invocations, 
only they are droned out in songs, more dismally, 
perhaps. The burden of both is to deliver the true 
worshippers from “the wiles of the flesh and the devil”; 
to overthrow, if possible, this awful demon, and to save 
sinners, of whom the worshippers declare themselves, in 
a hundred different ways, to be chief, “ miserable 
offenders ” [ka-nt-hu-mbi]. These, and lofty exaltation 
of the Christ-God and of the Father Jali, who, when He 
had given his word that nothing could save man from 
Hell, graciously allowed the Jews to crucify the Son, 
that in the Son’s sufferings He, Jah, might let off some 
of the sufferings of mankind. Possibly some of the 
present worshippers might be among the lucky saved. 


38 


RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 


For this salvation endless praises are to be Sung in 
the Temples below ; and for ever and for ever in the 
great Heavens, through the infinite eternal worlds 
without end. 

A Hymn of Praise in which all join ends the act of 
worship. The Priest Nesses the people 'and invokes the 
mercy of the gods ; and they, making due obeisance to 
the idols, retire in silence or to the music of the great 
organs. 

A special act of worship, or Incantation, is always 
made to the Triune-god , that is, the Three-in-one , called 
Holy Trinity ( Threenity ). To omit this would, in the 
opinion of devotees, be so terrible a thing that no one 
would dare to stay a moment, fearing that, like Korah 
in the Sacred Writings , the very world would open itself 
and swallow them up. This three-in-one seems like a 
Hindoo god. 

The Bonzes attend upon the sick and the dying, 
moderating their fears of damnation by insisting upon 
the most abject devotion to the Superstition, and inti- 
mating that, if they heartily grieve over their offences, 
and with undoubting minds believe in all the points of 
the Greed , then they may receive the Sacraments — that 
is, Sacred Meats ; which having received, the devil and 
Hell may be set at defiance. These Sacred Meats are 
symbols of the very body and. bloocl of Christ — a shock- 
ing rite , borrowed wholly from the old, savage Jews, 
who held that a Sacrifice must be offered up to appease 
the wrathful Jah on almost any occasion, and who 
sometimes even devoted human victims. 

The Bonzes, in general, perform the Marriage Cere- 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


39 


monies, which they will have to be a Sacred rite in their 
Superstition, though some Sects think otherwise. How- 
ever, the High-Castes do not consider a Marriage without 
a Bonze safe ; some evil to the children, or other calamity, 
might ensue. Thus the Bonzes, for their services in this 
matter, obtain consideration and good fees [tin- tin]. 

After all, however, with the lowest Caste the Super- 
stition is not much more than a Fright ; its morality 
does not touch them, nor those things which refine. 
They have only a dim and low idea of the Sovereign 
Lord — debased, in so much notion as they do have, by 
the Jewish debasement. The devil-and-Hell part is 
familiar to them, and, in truth, fits well to the origin of 
the Barbarous tribes, and to their rude and savage cha- 
racter. As I have said, the Upper Castes consider this 
portion of their Superstition the really valuable part, in 
practical use. All evidence in the Courts, and every 
sanction, touching important interests or statements, 
rest upon this hold upon the fears of the common 
people. “ Oh ” (as an Englishman once said to me), 
“ we must keep the devil and his hot place in our ser- 
vice, I tell you, Ah-Chin; or we should have ‘the 
devil to pay’ in good earnest !” 

It is very difficult to change the Superstitions of a 
people, because rooted in their fears ; and, in a matter 
wherein the imagination has chief power, and nothing 
can be known , even honest men of wisdom fear radical 
changes ; they prefer to bear inconveniences, and dread 
the effect of neiv doctrines upon ignorant masses. 

Priests, and the varied interests, and large establish- 
ments and revenues — in fact, a great portion of the 


40 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

whole community — are concerned in maintaining the 
Superstition, on selfish grounds, or think that their own 
interests are involved. The higher orders regard the 
Established condition of things in Worship and in the 
State as too Sacred to he touched. They denounce all 
who endeavour, in any faint degree, to suggest reforms, 
as “ infidel ” [un-ti-dsi] — a term of deepest reproach — 
agitators, who covertly would overthrow “ our Temples, 
our Idols, and the Queen-Pope herself.” 

But they cannot wholly suppress the Thinkers ; [kog- 
ti-te] (as the reformers are called) ; and these honestly 
think that some revision may he made with safety and 
advantage. They are sneered at by the larger part of 
the literati , and hy all the priests, as Tinkers. A tinker 
is one who mends and patches, not a real artisan ; and 
the majority will have it that nothing in England 
requires mending or patching. They are also stigma- 
tised, sarcastically, as members of a Mutual Admiration 
Society. A society where the members laud everything 
written or said by any other member; and where, as 
the members think, all true wisdom alone illuminates 
the surrounding darkness. I suspect this society is 
a mith [pho-gti] ; that the true sense of the sarcasm 
is, that the Thinkers overrate the value of their pub- 
lished thoughts, and that wisdom will not die with 
them. Certainly, some of the thoughts which I have 
seen in books, though not so gross and hateful as the 
Idolatry, are quite as useless. Only one thing I do 
respect them for — they do not subscribe to the pre- 
tensions of the priest; and are really influencing the 
people by giving them hints of value. They do act 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


41 


upon the upper classes, at least, with a reforming 
•effect. 

I have not referred to obscure sects, of which there 
are many. Some of these shout and howl ; some keep 
absolute silence; some lash themselves into a sort of 
phrensy, and fall down in fits, fancying that they are 
possessed by the Holy Spirit. Some will only be bap- 
tised by going into a river, and there, under the Incan- 
tations of the Priest, be violently plunged all over in 
the water, both women and men. Still, all of these, 
and many others, hold to the Sacred Writings and the 
other Idolatries : the main points are alike in all. 

The Roman Pope has many devotees among the 
English Barbarians ; and was, not long ago, the Great 
and only Head. But a vile and cruel king, who wished 
to enjoy a woman and divorce his wife, with whom he 
had lived for many years, and by whom he had children, 
quarreled with the Roman Pope, because he would not 
suffer this bad thing to be done; and the English 
Barbarians, who disliked a foreign Pope, and the fierce 
chiefs about this king, even some of the priests of 
English birth, urged him to proclaim himself to be 
Pope in England, and to seize upon the revenues which 
the Pope had received from the English, and all the 
lands and properties of great value, which beforetime 
had been given to the Temples and to the Priests. 
This was done ; this king seized upon the wealth, and 
threw down the worship of the Roman Pope in England, 
and declared himself to be the new god in England — the 
Pope! And the English Barbarians worshipped, and 
have continued to worship, this new Pope accordingly. 


42 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

And some wlio could not honestly worship the new 
idol, and dared to adhere to the Roman, were burnt to 
death! Indeed this new idolatry was not introduced 
into England without terrible consequences. Massacres, 
burnings, imprisonments, wars, horrible crimes — perse- 
cutions, destruction of families, robbing, plundering— not 
even to this day have all the evil consequences ceased ; 
though this bad ruler made this change in this particular 
of the great Superstition more than 300 years ago. 

Thus, our Central Kingdom may see how powerfully 
Idolatry and Superstition are entrenched among the 
English Barbarians. A System interwoven with the very 
texture of their civilization ; supporting, and, in turn, 
supported by the State ; mixed up with customs and 
traditions, and endeared by its connection with family 
interests ; rich in its possessions ; powerful in all the 
Halls of Learning, and in its influence upon the fortunes 
and dignities of men ; boasted of for its learning, for its 
history, and for its refining and reforming teachings ; 
the English Church (as those Barbarians call their grand 
Idolatry) seems likely to stand for many generations. 
Yet agencies are, slowly, at work, which will remove 
the dark and horrible, and leave the simple and true. 
The Benevolence of the Sovereign Lord of Heaven never 
tires ; and the pure worship and less corrupted morality 
will make way. 

I hope I may be pardoned for the time which I have 
given to this subject ; it is one worthy of deep attention. 
Besides, a little study of the literature and manners of 
the Western tribes, fastened upon my mind the impres- 
sion that their History was mainly an account of the 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


43 


rise and progress of the Christ-god Superstition; and 
that, hereafter, whoever shall have the pleasing task of 
writing of their better civilization, will find it to be his 
main purpose to show the decline and extinction of that 
Superstition. 

To wise men who worship the Supreme Lord only, 
and accept of His simple and direct Morality, there is, 
in all the broad and immense world, but a single family, 
ruled by Him. When this family recognises and wor- 
ships Him, in direct and true sincerity, and practises 
the few and perfectly simple rules of His benevolent 
Morality, then it is an enlightened , civilized family. 

The Western Barbarians do not understand nor prac- 
tise this Benevolent Morality ; until they do, their civili- 
zation will not be really better than a Barbarism. 

We are not to suppose that a perfect morality will 
ever obtain, because man, being two-fold in his nature — 
divine and bestial — will now be ruled by the one, and 
now by the other part. The object of all education 
(discipline) is, therefore, to teach man how he may order 
these two parts. There is no antagonism [lia-tsi] be- 
tween them, only it is indispensable that the divine part 
should rule. 

That this may be, the intellect must be cultivated, not 
in difficulties, but in habits of thinking, of looking, or 
seeking out ; of seeing the beauty, the order, the gran- 
deur of the whole divine world. Thus employed it 
delights in itself ; it feels the Mind like a bright thing, 
flying out to the great seas, and upwards to the ever- 
lasting stars. It loves to hear, to see, to look at and 
into everything. It can never cease to employ this 


44 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS. 

delightful mind, thus stimulated in early youth, to exert 
itself; hut it must he exerted innocently, benevolently. 

That the subordination of mind and the animal may 
he secured, the Supreme, the Moral Faculty must, 
from the earliest years, he touched by wise fingers. Ah, 
how it responds, this divine part; how it, in the pure and 
warm glow of unselfish youth, recognises and worships 
with filial love its Father, the Sovereign Lord ! — perceives 
the moral order and harmony, and loves to he orderly 
and obedient — early perceives that the true business of 
life is to preserve this order, and enjoy tins peace. 

Thus Man, a moral-minded animal, is first of all to 
he taught to understand his own nature, and to develop 
his distinguishing faculty. This done, the bestial part 
rises not above its office. It, too, performs its proper 
and useful end ; and man is not a divided, but a whole 
and happy being. 

All education, therefore, rightly considered, aims to 
this Integrity [Kom-fu] of a man — this secured, there 
are no limits to the mere objects of study or of ex- 
amination. 

Our Literati , directed many thousands of moons ago, 
by our exalted Confutze and Menzie, who, themselves were 
imbued with the ancient Wisdom, are familiar with these 
simple things. The W estern Barbarians, mainly devoted 
first of all to the bestial part ; to the enjoyment of the 
appetites and the passions ; sunk in gross Superstitions, 
only by a few minds begin dimly to see. 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAriIY. 


45 


CHAPTEE II. 

OF THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE ENGLISH. 

Before commenting upon the Government, it is useful 
to speak of the geography and history of the English 
Barbarians. 

The Kingdom consists of the following : England with 
Wales and Scotland, forming one large island ; Ireland, 
separated by a channel of the seas, lying West; and 
several small groups of islets, scattered about the Coasts. 
It lies Westerly from the great, main Land of the Bar- 
barians, from which it is separated by a narrow course 
of the seas. England and the Main Land form the 
region designated Europe. The whole Kingdom sur- 
passes not in area or population some of our Celestial 
provinces : the extent being in the English square miles 
some 110 thousand [Si-re], and in people some 32 mil- 
lions [Ken-ty]. In such narrow limits there are no * 
rivers — only small streams, which, near the sea, owing 
to the flux and reflux of the great waters, become broad 
and deep. 

In our Science and in our Annals the whole region 
and people are known as one only — but the different 
petty tribes are distinguished in our waters by the forms 
and colours of the flags, shown upon the masts of the 


46 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


Barbarian vessels. The English are less in people and 
in lands than many others ; but by their fierceness in 
war, and the multitude of their big ships, they esteem 
themselves to be the most powerful of all. 

The first account of them is recorded by one of the 
Bomans, who, in our dynasty, Han, crossed the narrow 
sea from a Roman province, and entered into the island. 
It was then a Wilderness, and among the forests lived a 
few savages, clothed in skins. Sometime after, the 
Romans conquered the country, and established a Roman 
province — their dominion lasting four hundred [qua- 
cet] years — contemporaneous with our dynasty, Hew- 
han. 

During the dynasties, Han and Hewhan , the various 
tribes surrounding the Roman provinces, grown more 
populous and better acquainted with the Military art, 
crowded, more and more, upon the Romans ; and, gra- 
dually, destroyed their power. They were forced to 
leave England. 

On their departure, and for several ages after, down 
to our dynasty, Song, the history of the Country is 
merely a tale of ceaseless struggles among the different 
savage tribes from the Main Land, to plunder and sub- 
due it. The civilization disappeared. Nearly all signs 
of the Roman occupancy became obliterated ; and the 
knowledge of letters would have been lost, but that the 
Priests who accompanied some of the savage chiefs 
had among them some of the Roman learning. These 
Priests and chiefs had adopted the worship of the new 
Christ-god. 

At length, one of these invading tribes having fairly 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


47 


mastered the country, and established a show of regular 
-authority, the germs of knowledge began to grow. The 
victorious tribe had lands also on the main parts ; 
fierce and warlike, it endeavoured to extend its power ; 
and repeatedly made assaults upon others of the Bar- 
barians of those chief parts. In these, the remains of 
the Eoman civilization were considerable, and the know- 
ledge of letters more common. 

The position of the English, and their need of commu- 
nication, made vessels indispensable ; and they learned 
to build and to sail many ships. However, but little 
progress in civilization was made till our dynasty, Ming; 
when the Sovereign, then a Woman, called by the Bar- 
barians, Queen , sent the first Embassy to our Central 
Kingdom — bearing gifts, and humbly approaching our 
Illustrious, begging permission to trade at one of our 
ports on the sea. 

Erom that time to the present, the annals of these 
Barbarians are but little more than records of plundering 
expeditions into distant regions; of their fierce slaughters; 
their cunning or bold stratagems to extend trade, and 
establish dominion for the sake of trade and plunder. 
To obtain trade, by means fair or foul ; to get strong- 
holds abroad and subjugate others — these have been the 
great objects of the rulers and the people. 

By their ships, manned with the most ignorant and 
debased, taught only in the work of sailing and fighting; 
stimulated by love of plunder, in which the meanest 
have a share ; the very name of these Barbarians has 
become terrible in all the distant seas. 

They first appeared within the waters of our Central 


48 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 

Kingdom, in the dynasty Tsing, but did not venture 
then to assault our unoffending people; and only, by 
cunning and with low prostrations and humility, sought 
to traffic, in such way as should be acceptable to our 
Illustrious. Further time was looked to and greater 
force before showing their fierceness ! 

They have since seized nearly all the maritime parts 
of the Hindoos, and, penetrating the country with 
savage bands, have slaughtered the inoffensive people, 
and robbed the treasuries of Princes and the Temples 
of immense riches. They have, finally, subjugated the 
chief provinces of the Hindoos, and yearly bear away 
from them the ancient revenues. 

Throwing off disguise, in our celestial seas, these- 
Barbarians at length discovered their true character. 
To save our people from the effects of a dreadful poison, 
to which the lower orders had become habituated, our 
Illustrious prohibited the importation of this thing, 
called by the English, Opium (Zle-psi). But these dis- 
regarded the just request; wished to pour upon us 
enormous amounts for the sake of the gains which 
the bad traffic yielded, and which was monopolised by 
them; and, when nothing else would serve, assaulted 
our unoffending people, fell with fire and sword upon 
our province of Quang-tun, and, rushing upon other 
maritime parts with their great ships, armed with pro- 
digious cannon, threatened to burn and destroy. In 
our peaceful Kingdom we had no need of such things ; 
we had no means to meet these destructive engines, 
contrived by Christ-god worshippers ; and our Illus- 
trious. to save further dreadful mischiefs to our un- 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


40 


protected people, granted trade to these selfish and cruel 
Barbarians ! Yet this benevolence of our Illustrious 
only served to encourage additional demands ; and we 
all remember how, coming with more ships, swifter 
with steam , and greater guns and men, these impious 
defiers of the Sovereign and Heavenly Justice have 
more recently fallen upon the Northern provinces, and 
slaughtered and robbed our people, our palaces, and 
even the precincts of our Illustrious himself ! Who, 
awaiting and appealing to the Sovereign Lord of Heaven, 
doubts not the due chastisement of crime, which, in due 
time, shall heavily fall ! 

Meantime, in all other parts of the great Outer Seas, 
these English visited the coasts with their fire-ships, 
and compelled the natives to trade, either by fraud or 
by open war. In the great Sea towards the sunset, 
they, in this way, settled upon many Lands; and, in 
the course of some generations, their settlements in 
those regions, wishing to trade with others beside the 
English (which these would not allow) revolted ; drove 
away the armed bands which were sent to subdue them, 
and formed a new power. 

In this way, about 100 years ago, the Barbarians, 
called American [Mel-i-kan], arose. Their ships are 
known in our Central Kingdom by a flag, named 
“ Starry,” because of the Stars [Zen-ti] which are 
painted upon it. These people are ardent for trade, 
but not so mad and -reckless ; and not aggressive in 
their intercourse with others. They are not so domi- 
neering and haughty— humbly submitting themselves, 
in general, to the Son of Heaven, making tribute, and 

E 


50 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


seeking liis Illustrious protection to their trade and to 
their ships in our Central Waters. 

During these events, the English Barbarians also sent 
their poor people and criminals into the Lands of the 
far South Seas, to make new places for their poor to 
toil in, to get rid of them, and to make safe, distant 
places, to keep their criminals in ; subduing the tribes 
in those parts — thus making more trade. And in this 
way, and with their many big ships and cannons, they 
boast that they will bring the whole immense world, 
either to be tributaries, or to be completely subjective. 
And they please their devotees, because they say that 
this subjugation will “ Convert ” all the Pagans to the 
worship of the gods of their Superstition — and this great 
boon will abundantly compensate for all the wrongs 
and atrocities committed ! In fact, they impiously pre- 
tend that they are commanded to subjugate the Heathen 
World, that it may be saved from the dreadful Hell ! 

The domestic events have not been important ; though 
tlieJBarbarians themselves think everything to be im- 
portant which happens amongst them. They fancy that 
“ Civilization and Progress ” (famous words with them) 
depend upon the petty disputes arising — sometimes as 
to their Superstition, and sometimes as to some trifling 
thing in their Customs. One of the main events, is the 
story of a son of one of their Sovereigns, who drove 
his father out of the Kingdom, and reestablished the 
Government in such manner, that, ever after, when the 
matter is referred to, one shall say Glorious [Twang-ba]. 
As well as I can understand, the things done were, that 
whereas, before, the Sovereign had been allowed to wor- 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


51 


ship the Pope, if he wished (but in secret), afterwards 
he should not, hut be the English Pope, solely. And, 
instead of a native dynasty, a foreign, and very base and 
stupid one, hateful to the English, was fastened upon 
them. These events, an outside observer sees, were fol- 
lowed by long-continued discontents, and civil war — 
wherein innocent persons suffered in their persons and 
their property; and very many were exiled, and very 
many were brutally massacred and put to death — not 
because of any other offence than adhering to the ancient 
Laws, and to the Sovereign whom this base son had 
•dethroned ! Yet, of this event, when one speaks of it, 
one shall say, Glorious ! 

The form of government has not changed; but the 
power has, during these periods, past into the hands of 
the Aristocracy [Fo-hi]. In the time of the Queen, who 
sent the humble petition to our Illustrious, the English 
Sovereign was Master — being Pope and Euler ; that is, 
High Priest and Sovereign. But the people, increasing 
and growing richer in ships and merchandize, began to 
feel the intermeddling of the Euler. Previously, the 
people had been too poor and too few to be accounted 
anything ; and grew up into an improved condition 
without notice. They now disliked to be taxed, and 
began a struggle with the Sovereign to limit his power 
in this thing — for they said, “ If he can take a 'penny (a 
small coin), at his own goodwill and pleasure, he can 
take all.” How this is an absurdity- — yet, it looked 
sound; and, at any rate, became the ground of the 
fight between the well-to-do people (the Middle-Caste), 
and the Euler. This would make his will absolute ; the 


52 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


other would make its will absolute ! The Sovereign who 
first had this opposition seems to have been a fool, and 
the next, a knave — but neither had sufficient sense to 
arm soldiers enough to compel obedience, as was done 
on the Main Land — consequently, after a good deal of 
wretched fighting between the Sovereign helped by 
nearly all the High-Caste, and the next Caste in the 
Aristocracy and well-to-do people, these last succeeded, 
and put the Sovereign to death. As is always the case, 
during a civil war, fanaticism arose. It based itself 
upon two points — the right of the people to rule, and 
the right of the gods of the Superstition, without any 
Pope, to be worshipped. This was a departure from the 
original dispute only in part ; because some had vehe- 
mently denied the whole notion of Pope-worshipping ; 
and as the Sovereign was English Pope, this pretension 
embittered the strife. Now, the Aristocracy (Higli- 
Caste) upheld the Pope ; but the Second-Caste and the 
people, opposed; and these, at length, for the time, 
carried all before them ; destroyed the King, overthrew 
his worship as Pope; and established the gods of the 
Superstition, with such severity of worship (especially 
as to the rites and as to the Seventh-day ), that, Society 
completely changed. Even the name of the State was 
changed ! The point, of the Rule of the people , was in 
this vindicated; for the name of the State was —Com- 
monwealth ; and of the Ptuler — Protector. Now, this so 
radical change was not real. It was the expression of 
that extreme agony into which Civil War hurries. The 
strong passions sway— the strongest rule. And the very 
able military man who organized the troops into the 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


53 

ways of an invincible army, though of the Aristocratic, 
High-Caste connection, happened to have adopted the 
most severe notions of the great Superstition; looked 
upon Christ-god merely as the Jah of the Jews ; wished 
to make the Sacred Writings the law of the Land ; and 
to get himself proclaimed to be the High Priest and ruler 
of this new Jewish State I This remarkable man, with 
his invincible troops, could not absolutely do this — but 
he did completely overawe and rule the State, causing 
himself to be declared Protector of the Commonwealth ! 

With the death of this strong man, there being no 
successor to his ability, repression soon relaxed; the 
Aristocracy came out of their seclusion; the gloom of 
fanatical worship brightened in the natural love of 
rational life. Society rebounded from the low depres- 
sion; ancient feelings, habits, sports, reasserted them- 
selves. Communities do not radically change, at once 
— such a thing to be beneficial, must be cautious. A 
tree, though misshapen, may not be plucked up by the 
roots violently, and forced into uncongenial soil ; to im- 
prove its beauty and use, a different method must be 
sought: only, if the tree be actually dying, possibly, a 
complete and radical change may save it — at any rate it 
is the sole chance ! 

The troops, wholly devoted to their late great General, 
found no one on whom they could, rely ; and another 
portion of the Army in the far North, was induced 
actively to assist the Aristocracy. These, joined by the 
middle classes, who had wearied of the too gloomy 
worship and severe rites, hastened to recall a Son of 
him whom they had not long before put to death, and 


54 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 

place him upon the Throne. They declared him to be 
Sovereign-pope: they restored the old form and name 
of government; and rescinded nearly everything done 
by the Commonwealth. In this Restoration (as the 
English call it) is another event, considered by them, 
of great importance. In this Bestoration (a natural 
effect of the fanaticism largely charged to the greater 
ignorance of the lower castes) the High-Castes again 
became predominant. They again took influence and 
power everywhere, and retained the fruits of the civil 
struggle in their hands. They had aided the resistance 
to the arbitrary will of the Sovereign ; and they now 
grasped and enjoyed the power wrested from him. They, 
alone, could impose taxes. No Sovereign would again 
dare to tax the people (that is, the Higli-Castes) without 
their consent. But they would levy and raise taxes 
when they pleased. Thus holding the Purse of the 
State they had become supreme. 

On the death of this Bestored one (who turned out 
to be so base that the common people often deplored 
tlie loss of the late great General), a brother reigned. 
This man, as I have said (wishing to worship the Bome- 
pope) was driven out by his son, forming the epoch, 
Glorioles. The present Queen is of the dynasty then 
established; and during this period the absorption of 
power by the Higli-Caste has gone on. Taught by the 
Slaughter of the late King, his successor feared; and 
the new dynasty was compelled by the Aristocracy to 
submit to those limitations of power, which effectually 
placed authority in their hands. To secure this autho- 
rity, the Sovereign was not allowed any money to keep 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


55 


troops; and, if, on any pretence, troops were raised, 
they were immediately refused pay, and forced to be 
disbanded upon the least suspicion that they would be 
used to strengthen the Sovereign. The aristocracy had 
continued to strip him also of all private revenue ; and 
had, in fact, reduced him to a dependency upon them 
for his daily subsistence [Bran-te]. 

Thus, the High-Caste, acting by the forms of the 
Grand Council , seized power. 

It is proper to explain the substance and form of this 
Council. 

It is divided into two parts — Upper House, and Lower 
House. 

The Upper are the Lords [Cheang] of Lands and 
Lords of the Temples — (High-State Sect.) 

The Lower are lords, brothers, sons, nephews, rela- 
tions, and devoted servants of the Upper ; and are far 
more numerous. 

Ho rule can be made, nor law, without both these 
bodies consent to it. This they do by asking each one 
his opinion, and a majority decides. Everything of 
importance must originate in the Lower House, and 
first be settled there. Then, the will of the Lower 
House is communicated to the Upper House, and it is 
ordered to ratify it. The members do so, and the Sove- 
reign (or somebody requested thereto by him) approves 
(as the English politely phrase it) ; and the thing, so 
approved, is a new Law. How, no Sovereign dares not 
approve — it might cost him his head. The last one, 
many years ago, who thought he might risk it, soon 
gave up the attempt, and died in a madhouse. 


56 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


It will be seen, that the power in the Lower House 
will necessarily fall into the hands of any one who can 
obtain adherents enough to his opinions to secure a 
majority of members. The most ready debater [Qu- 
iztsi], the coolest and self-possessed, who has made 
himself master of the wishes of the majority ; or, who, 
to these things, or with only a part of them, has great 
wealth and influence — one, in fine, who knows and 
divines what is wanted, and has the ability to lead ; — 
directs and orders the measures which are to be adopted. 
This man, who controls the Lower House, governs the 
State. He nominates those who shall assist him in the 
government, being the same who aid him in managing 
the House. Thus, the Lower House governs by its 
delegates. 

All these men, who are really a Committee [ty-gi-te] 
of the House for the ruling of the Kingdom, act in the 
name of the Sovereign, and receive the ancient titles of 
office from him. The ancient forms are preserved ; and 
these men, obeying the House, profess to obey the 
Sovereign — in fact, the Sovereign is pretended to be the 
source of honour and of authority ; and the very Laws 
which have been made against his wish are declared to 
be his Laws 3 

Thus, both the Sovereign and the people are amused. 
The one, by the respect shown to him, the emoluments 
and influence of his high office, and of his Lope-ship; 
the others, by some semblance of political [in-tri-gsi] 
power. This consists in calling together a few of the 
people of second and lower caste, to choose a new mem- 
ber for the Lower House — but this is quite a comed} T , 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


57 


{sham-li] for the most part. It gives the ignorant Bar- 
barians a notion of self-importance, and tickles them 
with the fancy that they really have a part in the 
government of the State. 

Whilst these changes in the ordering of things at 
home were in progress, the usual fierce and bloody ex- 
peditions of these Barbarians had not been suspended. 

The Americans had succeeded in establishing their 
independent power, but not till they had waged a second 
war with their late masters, scarcely less important to 
them than the first. For the English, still looking upon 
them with disdain, insisted upon the right to stop any 
of the vessels of the Americans upon the high seas, and 
to seize and carry away to their own ships any one whom 
they pleased. They would do this, and force the victims 
of their insolent cruelty to fight for them in their horrible 
war-ships. 

The American Barbarians resisted this outrage ; and, 
forced to fight a bloody war, vindicated their just cause; 
so that never since have the English, or any other Bar- 
barians, dared to board or outrage the ships or the sailors 
[mer-tsi] of the Americans. 

This stubborn and brutal barbarity, love of plunder 
and traffic, have involved the English during the pre- 
sent dynasty in numberless wars beyond seas. They 
have internally avoided great commotion, although the 
low castes have occasionally perished in surprising- 
numbers by famine and disease. In Ireland the de- 
population has exceeded anything recorded. The poor 
people of the Northern parts also, driven away from 
their homes, have nearly disappeared, unless in the 


58 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


armed bands sent over the sea. With these, the poor 
and despised Irish are in great numbers als'b ; and, 
indeed, the strength and ferocity of the armed bands 
depend upon these, the most degraded and lowest caste 
of the Barbarians. In this way, the most turbulent and 
ignorant have been drawn off, trained to use of arms, 
and used to spread and maintain the terror and power 
of the English. Many of the low- castes have been 
shipped away in great ships to distant parts to form 
new settlements, and to add to those already begun. By 
these means, and from the increase of riches from trade, 
and from plunder of remote regions giving employment 
to the low orders, great disorders have been avoided. 
The plunder of the vast treasures of the Princes of the 
Hindoos, and the trade which has been forced upon 
them, and upon others, have contributed to this end. 
The result of increased wealth has been, however, mostly 
to the gain of the High- Castes ; who, holding the Lands, 
have found in the enormous increase of value in these 
an additional strength. The numbers of the rich have 
increased; and these always look to the Castes above, 
and draw away as far as possible from those below. 
The poor remained uneducated, and fell more completely 
under control. If one of their order benefited himself, 
he had no ambition higher than a desire to stand well 
with those above him. Thus W ealth, always j oining itself 
to the Higher Castes, made the power of the Aristocracy 
[Fo-hi] quite complete, and the obedience of the com- 
mon people assured. Of this High-Caste the Sovereign 
is merely the ornamental top. 

The learning of the Eomans made but little advance. 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


59 


until very lately. The great Schools had some of the 
High-Caste within their walls ; the mass of the people 
remained ignorant, fierce, and brutal. The laws con- 
tinued to be in a most dreadful state ; the prisons, foul 
dens of disease, cruelty and crime ; the administration 
of Law, and disposal of offenders, savage and barbarous 
in the extreme. 

The learning took mostly a fantastic [pa-ntsi] form — - 
pedantic, busied with the mere shells of words, and 
names of things. It busied itself chiefly with the old 
languages of the Komans and the Greeks. A man who 
could repeat aloud from memory the modes of a Greek 
word was a man of profound learning. Of our Central 
Kingdom, of the wisdom and knowledge of the great 
East, they knew nothing ; but nursed an intolerable con- 
ceit in admiration of the trivialities of their own igno- 
rance, and by disdaining to understand a civilization of 
which they knew nothing — branding it as idolatrous, 
dark, Pagan ! 

Still, gradually, intercourse and larger acquaintance 
with the main parts, revived the love of Eoman art; 
and the Eoman civilization once more revived. Eoman 
architecture, sculpture, learning, laws appeared. The 
style of public buildings, houses of the High-Castes, 
Bridges, took on the Eoman forms. The Literati be- 
came more numerous ; and, with the increasing riches, 
larger numbers became instructed. A long, bloody and 
disastrous War, which ended only a few years ago, 
moderated the intolerant selfishness of the Barbarians. 
It left them so crushed down under the weight of innu- 
merable taxes, that dt began to be seen that these inter- 


60 


HISTORY AXD GEOGRAPHY 


Tamable Wars beyond Seas, were not paid for by tlie 
gains of trade, nor by acquisitions of territory. This 
moderation was strengthened by the better and in- 
creasing knowledge: and Wars are not, in general, so 
eagerly waged. 

The oldest child of a Ruler succeeds — male first, and 
failing him, a female. The direct descent from the 
eldest always succeeds, to the exclusion of the younger. 

It is justly claimed that this is an element of sta- 
bility; though it contains a foolish omission. For there 
is no recognized authority which can set aside an heir 
in the direct Line for however good cause. Thus the 
danger of a violent succession is always imminent — and 
of this the English history has many examples. In our 
Flowery Land, this danger is averted by the wise cus- 
toms of the great Calcio. 

In my Report, I have explained at length the rules 
which govern in transactions with foreign tribes; and 
shown the maxims needful for our Illustrious, in all 
negotiations and dealings with the Western Barbarians. 
As trade (particularly by the English) is the grand ob- 
ject, I have pointed out how to deal in this matter, in 
such way as to yield no more than is convenient, nor 
sooner than is expedient. 

The Committee who govern, preserving ancient forms, 
administer through them, in the name of the Sovereign. 
These forms assume three great divisions , one of them 
being two-fold : spiritual , referring to the great Super- 
stition ; and the other temporal ; this is quite nominal, 
for the “ temporalities ” always touch matters spiritual 
in some way. 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


61 


The First is the Executive. 

The Second is the Parliament. 

The Third is the Judicial. 

The Executive — that is that which executes — has 
two parts. Spiritual, (the ghostly, the unknown,) per- 
forming all things concerning the Sovereign-Pope, the 
Temples, the worship, the Bonzes. Temporal, ordering 
the military forces by land and by sea, seeing that the 
laws are obeyed, and ruling the Hindoos and other 
distant peoples and settlements. Also arranging all 
matters with other Clirist-god Barbarians, and with all 
foreign peoples. 

The Law-making, called Parliament, or place of talk- 
ing [Ba-ble]. This is the Grand Council already re- 
ferred to, divided into the Upper and the Lower House, 
together really forming one, where all Buies and Laws 
are made. Here rests the Supreme Authority ; and this 
body is controlled by the Committee , as before explained. 

The Upper House is composed of Lords, who sit there 
in right of birth, except the Spiritual Lords, who are the 
great Bonzes (called Bishops) of the Superstition. For- 
merly, this Upper was, next after the Sovereign, most 
powerful, and often over-ruled, and even dethroned him. 
But the greater intelligence has reduced its influence, 
and made innoxious its mischievousness. Even its 
aristocraticalness could not blind the Lower House to 
an Imbecility inherent in its very constitution. Born 
Law-makers ! The proportion of idiots, worn-out and 
selfish routs (we have no similar word), narrow caste- 
bound egotists, at last, wearied even its congeners, and 
they left to the Lords [Tchou] the ancient Forms, but 


62 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


deprived tliem of all real power. This might not have 
happened, hut that from the very nature of things the 
number of Peers (as a Lord is called, who has the here- 
ditary law-making right) who are active and young is 
inconsiderable; and, for the most part, these prefer 
out-door sports, pleasures of wealth and travel, to sitting 
among the elders to be snubbed for youthful inexperience. 
The result is that all warmth, life, and interest, all 
generous disinterestedness, are unknown by these 
venerable egotists. They are sufficiently amused with 
liereditar}^ titles, with the respect shown to their rank, 
and with the playing at Law-making. They are too 
conceited to see that they are “puppets,” and too small 
to despise the honours which conceal their insignificance. 
Are they not exalted above and separated from the 
“ common-herd ” 1 [kou-tong]. 

They are completely engrossed with the trivialities of 
their rank (High-Caste). They wait upon the Sovereign 
like menials, tricked out in furs, feathers, and robes, and 
jewelled chains, stars and garters, sparkling in gems, 
silk hose, and the very shoes resplendent with precious 
stones ! On great occasions they are allowed (and this 
permission must come from the Sovereign) to place 
upon the head a golden and jewelled “ circlet,” named 
coronet. With this head-gear glittering about their 
brows, they receive the respectful reverence of the people, 
and feel a greater exaltation than the gods. “ Ah,” as 
the Barbarians say, “ who would not be a Lord ! ” 

A special Superstition attaches itself to this head- 
ornament. That worn by the Euler is called a Crown. 
When he places it on in public, the trumpets give a 


OF TIIE ENGLISH. 


63 


mighty sound, all the people how in humble homage, 
and Nature is supposed to arrest the wheels of her 
majestic course to join in the rapturous shouts of de- 
light ! The act is rooted in the Superstition, and one of 
its most cherished things. 

The highest ambition of a subject is to be permitted 
to take Rank and wear this bauble. There is no mean 
service to the Euler, no intrigue, no sacrifice which may 
not be done or suffered to get this privilege — the right 
to shine in this coronet. And such an ambition is so 
honourable, that success condones every contemptible 
thing by which it is secured. Men are blinded by the 
glare, and overlook the mean being below : in his 
Coronet he is unimpeached and unimpeachable ! 

Nor is this ambition confined to the Lords temporal ; 
the Higli-Caste Bonzes will not be remiss in those duties 
to the Sovereign and to his family, in those to “ Society ” 
and to the exalted Lords, upon whom they have to 
attend on all occasions of baptising, and marrying and 
feasting, to give the blessings [fihu-lsi] of the gods of 
the Superstition — in nothing remiss which shall help 
them to secure the peculiar head-gear given to those of 
their order whom the Sovereign raises to the lordly 
rank called Bishops. It is called a mitre. Ages ago, in 
the obscure days of the Superstition, poor and miserable, 
the chief Bonzes were distinguished by a head-covering 
like two bits of board, united or mitred together, typi- 
cal of the two-fold nature of their office. Thus arose 
the Mitre, now a resplendent and costly bauble, more 
lofty than the coronets, and showing the superiority of 
.spiritual (priestly) dignity ! 


64 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


In these coveted distinctions, the Sovereign finds the 
source of nearly all the power really enjoyed ; and by 
an artful use and distribution of coronets’and mitres, 
often covertly manages the machinery of government to 
his own wishes.' An unscrupulous and able man may 
make himself respected ! I forgot to say that another 
jewelled symbol of priestcraft is bestowed with the 
mitre, so comical that one might suspect it originated 
in the love of coarse humour common to the Barbarians 
— but its true origin was in the same early and poor 
days of the Superstition, when the highest Bonze was 
only a “Keeper of the Sheep ; ” that is, his duty .was to 
keep the poor devotees together and save them from the 
idolatrous pagans. The Christ was said to have called 
his despised followers “ Sheep without a shepherd,” and 
to have requested the chief of his followers “ to feed 
his sheep.” Thus it came about that these chief men 
took a staff, crooked at one end (similar to that used by 
a veritable shepherd), as typical of their duty. 

With the mitre is, therefore, handed a costly Crosier — 
crooked and crossed staff — to enable the Lord Bishop 
to pull in the wandering sheep, or to catch hold of any 
which may have slipt down into deep holes, or other 
rough places ! “ Fancy a Lord Bishop catching sheep!” 

— said a jocose Barbarian to me once. 

The crowning of a new Euler is a grand ceremony , in 
which all the wearers of the little crowns ( coronets and 
mitres) attend ; and no Euler is a Euler unless he be 
crowned, with all the superstitious rites. To this I 
may refer elsewhere. At present, I may mention that 
the history of all the Barbarians, and notably that of 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


65 


the English, is a story very often of the wars, assassina- 
tions, plots, and cruel deeds done to seize the Crown : 
for whoever could contrive to clap this thing upon his 
head was at once King ! In the eyes of the supersti- 
tious invested with a sort of divinity ! This feeling is 
well expressed by their greatest poet: “What a divinity 
doth hedge a King ! ” This is, doth encompass and 
protect a King. 

When the Law-making Houses meet, the custom is 
for the Sovereign to attend in all his State, and open 
the Houses. That is, to swing open the grand doors of 
the Upper House for the Lords, and especially for the 
Lower members ; who, on this occasion, are admitted 
to enter in and listen to the Gkacious Speech. The 
rush of the Low-members is frightful, for the Doors are 
only opened for a very short time. The speech itself is 
nothing — merely some polite phrases as to the health 
and happiness of “ our beloved Lords and gentlemen ” (as 
the form is), and some Incantation to the gods of the 
Superstition, “ on the prosperity and successful trade of 
our subjects.” The great Lords sit like gods, effulgent, 
exalted; whilst the Low-members crowd like school- 
boys, and as rudely as school-boys, below. This is 
another thing by which the childish Lords are amused 
with a notion of power. 

The present Sovereign rarely opens the Houses, but 
delegates some great Lords to do it for her. And the 
ceremony is far less. The Crown and the Crown J ewels 
are, therefore, so rarely seen, that the divinity of the 
Euler is in danger ; for the Superstitious reverence and 
pope-worship attaches to the Crown. These Crown 

F 


66 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


Baubles are, by the present Euler, kept imprisoned and 
guarded in a huge stone castle, so strong that no force 
but of nature can throw it down, and are cautiously 
shown to the admiring and dazzled few who are allowed 
by the guards to see them, at “ a penny a-peep ” (as an 
American Barbarian said in my ear, on the day of my 
seeing them). In this he referred to the fee [tin] which 
is exacted before admission, and which (I was told) 
went to the privy-purse of the Queen to buy pins. The 
Barbarians boast that these glittering gewgaws cost more 
than all the Halls of Learning ! 

The Judicial is the remaining great division of 
administration. In this the Laws are explained and 
applied. Ho law is, by this department, ever made. 
It has no such function. Hone the less, it really makes 
new laws, and unmakes the Statute Law (that is, the 
Law enacted by the great Council of Law-makers) just 
as it pleases. In fact the chief business of this depart- 
ment is to unmake the Laws, and the chief business of 
the Council is to make them over again. And between 
the two, of the making of Law there is no end, nor any 
possible understanding. Were not the Barbarian body 
and mind very tough, they would infallibly perish 
beneath the weight of this inscrutable and ponderous 
contrivance. Ho one is benefited by it, but the in- 
numerable officers who manage it, and the Lawyers, who 
fatten upon the fees [tin-tin] which it wrings from all 
the unfortunates who have to attend upon it. These 
Lawyers form a special and very exclusive Caste ; often 
at dispute among themselves upon points of personal 
concern, and as to the emoluments and offices which apper- 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


67 


tain to the Caste, hut always united (and so-called 
Brothers) as to everything outside, by which they can 
more effectually conceal and mystify the nature of their 
order, and the more adroitly plunder the uninitiated. 
This is the Caste which opposes every inquiry into 
abuses and every attempt to reform the administration ; 
which shouts the loudest praises to the Superstition, 
puts in force all the terrors of the Caste and of the Law 
(as by them expounded) to destroy any one who does 
not adore the glorious event, and declare the Constitution 
and the Laws, the Crown and the Altar (meaning the 
Superstition), the most perfect of all human wisdom — 
indeed, Divine. I have explained the Glorious event. 
To the Lawyer-Caste glorious in fees and means of 
plunder ; in abuses which, had the reforms introduced 
before that event been perfected, would have been 
swept away ; reforms which that event postponed, and 
the subsequent wars and civil dissensions made not 
only impossible, but still more difficult in the future. 
In another place I propose to refer to this department — 
the Judicial — when speaking of the Courts of Justice 
wherein the Law r s are expounded and applied : because, 
as in these the daily course of the life of a people may 
be studied, I wish to look curiously into them. It will 
be readily seen, however, that for a stranger to find, 
beneath the thick and manifold wrappings and pon- 
derous obscurities of the Lawyer-Caste, where Justice 
lies smothered, is no easy task. 

The present Euler is of the so-called glorious dynasty, 
and is more wise and virtuous than her ancestors, who 
were remarkable for obstinacy, meanness, stupidity, and 


68 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


debauchery. If one had a virtue, it was so misdirected 
by narrowness of mind as to be worse than vice. The 
best man of them was the most mischievous Sovereign, 
and the wisest thing done by any of the dynasty was to 
keep away from England. When they did nothing they 
did well ; their activity was disastrous. 

The Queen now reigning is esteemed by the Aris- 
tocracy because she leaves them to do as they please, 
and gratifies them by bestowing upon them and their 
devoted supporters coronets. She only demands for her- 
self and her numerous children ample provisions ; if in 
these she be gratified, she cares not to vex herself or her 
Lords by any disputes. She is very benevolent, filling 
the great palaces with poor relations , where they are 
supported — not by her. On the marriage of one of her 
royal children her munificence is unequalled ; but she 
asks her devoted Lords to tax her subjects to pay for it ! 

Her allowances are, with wise policy , made very ample, 
that a splendid Court may be kept up, to give places to 
the aristocracy, and to gratify the love of display. In 
this the Lords are generous ; it costs them nothing, the 
taxes upon the people cover the expenses. There are 
murmurs that the crown is never shown ; that Eoyalty 
is hidden from view, and that the reverence of the 
people wanes ; that the allowances designed and hereto- 
fore used to maintain a grand Court of respect and honour 
are misdirected, and get into the private pocket of 
Eoyalty for merely personal objects. But he who should 
dare openly to say this, unless of a very High Caste, 
would assuredly have his ears cropped [ku-tof.] 

The reign has not been without bloody wars ; one of 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


69 


which was to uphold a sick Turk (an outside Barba- 
rian, who hates the very name of Christians , and calls 
them clogs), and whom the English Barbarians them- 
selves despise. Yet, they rushed with great ships and 
armed bands to attack another Christ-god tribe, who 
threatened the sick Turkish chief; because, as they 
thought, their trade was best secured by helping the 
Turk ! This foolish Avar cost thousands of the lives of 
the English sailors and armed bands, but what is far 
more consequential to the Barbarians, many millions 
[li-re] of gold. It ended in nothing at all ; for the great 
tribe which lost in the war some ships and some forts, 
taken by the English, have now rebuilt them more 
strongly than before, and again threaten the sick Turk 
more than ever ! 

When the American Barbarians had a domestic 
contention — some of them wishing to deliver a poor 
people held in slavery, by a custom in some of their 
provinces, from the cruel wrong — the English Barbarians 
sided with those who wished to keep the slaves. They 
did this notwithstanding that always before they had 
almost quarrelled with the American tribes for allowing 
this very thing ! How, however, because they did not 
like to have that people great in ships, and because they 
thought it would be safer for them and better for their 
trade, to have the American tribes broken to pieces, 
insidiously aided those who fought to hold the slaves, 
in every way they could without open war. But the 
slave-holding tribes were overpowered, and the slaves 
set free. Presently, the American Barbarians demanded 
that they should be repaid some of the monies which 


70 


history and geography 


this treacherous conduct had cost them — the lives could 
not he repaid. The English Barbarians, fearing the 
American tribes — very valiant, and having many ships 
—finally submitted to pay a heavy penalty for their 
wrong doing ! 

Lately, also, the English Barbarians have stood silent 
and seen another tribe on the Main Land (which aided 
them just before in the War for the Turk, and, in fact,, 
saved them from being shamefully beaten) completely 
overthrown and mercilessly sacked by another tribe — 
when a kindly word would have saved great suffering. 
But it does not displease the English Barbarians to see 
another tribe weakened — and their trade was not 
touched in this war — in fact, perhaps they had more to 
gain by pleasing the strong tribe which came out 
victorious. 

The English themselves complain that, lately, they 
have not distinguished themselves by their usual glorious 
expeditions ; that their war-ships and their fierce war- 
riors are getting out of use, and that the late Committee 
of Government, made the name of England inglorious. 
This feeling at length got possession of the Lower 
House, and a new Committee appeared. These say that 
the attempt to carry on affairs with other tribes, upon 
the moral rules of the Christ-god worship, although the 
tribes are devotees, is absurd. That the late Com- 
mittee, who had some slight notion of correct moral 
precepts, and thought possibly one might venture to 
trust the Sovereign Lord of Heaven, were jocace-at-any- 
price men, milksops (a term of reproach equivalent to 
milkmaids) [kin-e-suk], and that, in . their hands, the 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


71 


English Lion had been muzzled — made an object of con- 
tempt ! (This bloodthirsty beast is the admired symbol 
of English power.) 

This new Committee are pledged to seize the very 
first occasion which may offer to exhibit the British 
Lion (as he is styled) with his muzzle off, his claws 
sharpened, and his frame well fed and strong. The 
taxes are raised and the most exact attention is devoted 
to all needful things to perfect this beast to the standard 
of his ancient might. And the present Government — 
Committee — watch with keen eyes for that opportunity, 
when they shall suddenly let spring this monster ! It 
is supposed that the angry growl [heuien-ro] will suffi- 
ciently alarm ; if not, the terrific roar [Zuung-luu] 
cannot fail ! The only drawback to this ferocious 
pastime will be found in those members of the Lower 
House, who, themselves bearing a good weight of taxes 
without the emoluments of office, may oppose the 
majority and reduce the arrogancy of its temper. ISTone 
the less, in the present brutal conceit of the Lower 
House and of the lower orders, a war may at any 
moment break out, if for no other purpose than to 
show other Barbarians that the British Lion is still a 
Lion in full vigour ! The idea of a dull, toothless, 
blind old brute, which even a jackass (as one of the 
Barbarian fables has it) may kick with impunity, is too 
intolerable ! 

The morality of the present Boyal Court is said to be 
admirable — when you can once find the Boyal resi- 
dence. But this is quite a myth. There is, in this 
reign, no Boyal Court, only a domestic circle — a Boyal 


72 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


Family — not kept up with so much splendour as some 
of the homes of the High-Caste. It is said that no 
suitor of an improper moral colour may approach any 
Princess, unless he be a cousin of the Queen, when the 
blood sanctifies the taint, and all is clean. If a real 
cousin be not of these suitors, one as nearly related 
among the poverty-stricken princes of the Barbarians 
from the Main Land as can be had, is selected. He 
must profess to worship the great Superstition of the 
English Sect , and detest the Boman Pope — at least, in 
public. His poverty is no objection — that is more than 
counterbalanced by the Illustrious obscurity of his race 
— that is, some family which ages ago contrived to live 
by plunder, and by making itself safe within the walls 
of stone castles, among steep rocks and hills. A family 
whose descendants feel more pride in these, now, old 
and ruinous wrecks of former insolence, than in any 
other possession — and whose alliance is acceptable to 
the English Queen ! The poverty of these petty chiefs 
is, however, removed ; nor do they marry a Princess of 
the English Queen unless they be paid for it. It is not 
the Queen who pays; the occasion is seized upon to 
obtain that provision to which I have referred. 

And the paltry chief, and his new, royal bride, know 
poverty no more; they, and their children, and chil- 
dren’s children, are provided for by the Lower House, 
who tax the people for this privilege, so much valued by 
them ! — this privilege of succouring and enriching the 
worn out, useless and decaying chiefs of foreign Bar- 
barians, who have any, the remotest, trace of kinship to 
the Eoyal House of England ! 


OF THE ENGLISH. 


73 


The more considerable events, therefore, in the present 
reign, as the Barbarians think, have reference to these 
marriages of Royal Princesses, births, christenings (bap- 
tizings), deaths, and the like among them. The Low- 
House readily takes these opportunities to profess its 
homage and devotion. The Queen follows the Sacred 
Writings with great exactness, which commands “ take 
■care of those of your own blood ” — indeed, her devotion 
to this precept is, perhaps, more noticeable than her 
■devotion in general. 

Her Illustrious presence is rarely known among the 
people. When she does appear, she is hardly more than 
respectfully and silently worshipped. She does not at- 
tract the love of the people — though she is (as a sly 
Barbarian youth of the Low-Castes once said to me, 
sarcastically), very dear [chean]. (A pun [phu-nsi] on 
the word ; which may mean beloved , or very costly). 

When, as rarely happens, to honour some Show 
wherein the Royal presence may bring money to a 
Charity, the Queen appears, surrounded by Royal guards, 
:and in State, there is always to be seen a gigantic ser- 
vant, dressed in the scarlet of the Royal household, 
seated immediately behind the Sacred Person , to watch 
over and rescue her from any danger. His body and 
mighty strength are always ready to be interposed ! 
This favourite servant, it is said, assists her Illustrious, 
when, among the hills of the Par North, she visits the 
great, high rocks, and climbs the sides of mountains — 
his strength is so ready, trusty, and invaluable ! 

To her, and to her subjects, a great loss was inflicted 
when Death destroyed the youthful Consort of the 


74 


HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 


Queen, when she was still young. He was one of 
ancient family among the petty Barbarian chiefs to- 
whom I have referred ; was near in blood to the 
Queen, and by her greatly beloved, it is said. He was 
never allowed any power in the State, and was a subject 
of the Queen, though her husband. It is whispered 
that he did not quietly submit to this condition of 
things — but it would not be worth the notice of a wise 
man to attend to this gossip. I could never learn that 
he was of any use ; but, none the less, the Barbarians 
exalt him very highly, and have built lofty monuments 
to his honour. I said use — I forgot — he gave a very 
numerous brood of princes and princesses to the English 
Barbarians. Of these they are very proud — not because 
they do, or can ever do, anything useful, but because it 
adds to the number of the High-Castes , and around them 
very many poor members of that caste can cluster, and 
live upon the cast-off clothes and other second-hand 
things of these exalted ! 

On the whole, we may desire the long continuance 
of Her Illustrious’ reign. If her will were law, dis- 
tant plunderings would cease ; and her influence is 
better than may generally be looked for. She cannot 
prevent, but she may moderate those expeditions 
despatched to subjugate the Heathen , extend trade, and 
bring under the dominion and worship of the Christ- 
god distant tribes. Great guns, fire-arms, gunpowder, 
and a poisonous liquor called Bum, would, perhaps, 
under other sovereigns, even more frequently be sent to 
prepare the way for the Prince of Peace (as the Christ- 
god is often styled). 


OF THE ENGLISH 


75 


Some respect for Justice and some regard to the rights 
of others have been shown under the influence of this 
Illustrious ; hut, as we have seen, this, the most honourable 
distinction of the present reign, is likely to be oblite- 
rated. The old predatory instinct of the English Bar- 
barians again comes uppermost, and though caution and 
fear of taxes may make the Committee of Government 
tardy and unwilling to attack (unless some weak tribe, 
where victory would be sure and its glory conspicuous), 
yet, such is the prevailing temper, that blood-letting 
seems needful to cool those fierce and haughty Bar- 
barians. 

A ferocious war may be looked for ; nor is it by any 
means incredible that the war-ships of these Christ-god 
worshippers and their murdering bands should again be 
directed against our peaceful Central Kingdom ! 


76 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


CHAPTER III. 

SOME PARTICULARS OF THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 

The whole country is divided into districts, in general 
governed, like our Provinces, in the Sovereign’s name, 
by viceroys and governors. 

The heir to the Crown, if he be the son of the reign- 
ing Ruler, is Prince of Wales — a title bestowed upon 
his eldest son by an ancient king ; and which, at the 
time, gave the administration of that Province to this 
son. The eldest son of the Queen now enjoys with this 
title also that of Duke of Cornwall. These lofty de- 
signations confer no power, although they carry with 
them high distinction and great revenues. 

The Aristocracy in the case of the heir, as in that of 
the Sovereign, watch jealously anything which looks 
like intellect. They do not stint personal respect and 
ample revenues, but take care that upon coming to the 
Crown, the new Sovereign shall be a “ puppet.” 

He is, whilst heir, not allowed to take any kind of 
share in government, but is surrounded by flatterers, 

unkeys [pluc-ngi], idle young people of both sexes, and, 
from mere want of useful business, falls into every sort 
of sport and pleasure. He must, indeed, be strong in 
morality and in character, if, upon coming to his high 
office, he be not reduced to the selfish imbecile and 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 77 

puppet, desired by the High-Caste. Lucky if he have 
not become absolutely contemptible by his vices ! 

Ireland is governed by a High Viceroy, whose chief 
employment is to amuse the Irish with shows — the real 
power being in the hands of the General of the armed 
bands. Anciently, the Provinces were administered by 
Vice-roys, who possessed authority; but the pettiness 
of the Island and swiftness of communication have now 
concentrated all actual administration 'at the Capital 
city. The Provincial governors, however, keep up some 
show of the ancient order, and, nominally, command 
the Provincial Militia. This is a merely nominal force, 
composed of butcher-boys, farmer-lads and the like, who 
do not know how to handle a fire-arm , nor how to fight, 
unless in the Barbarian pastime of the Ring : a combat 
wherein the young Barbarians, two being pitted against 
each other, try each to hit the other a terrible blow 
directly in the eye. This, done with the hand doubled 
up, nearly destroys that organ. He is victor who 
succeeds in hitting both eyes of his antagonist, and 
fairly blinding him! This, a common and admired 
sport, is greatly esteemed by the English Barbarians, 
and considered an admirable training. It develops the 
ferocity and brutality required to make good soldiers 
(plunderers), and the powers of endurance indispensable 
in the distant forays. Even in the Halls of Learning, 
it is thought to be a manly science , fitting the young 
Aristocracy to match any man in personal conflict, and 
enabling him to be self-possessed and ready to fight his 
way through the world. As, in general, the lowest 
orders are badly fed and reduced in strength, and, 


78 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


though well used to brutal fights, yet are not trained 
to the Science, the young Aristocrat is expected “to 
pummel the brute” upon the slightest occasion of dis- 
respect. 

The provincial Magistracy are mainly employed in 
keeping the Lower-Castes in order, and especially in 
punishing trespasses upon the lands, or upon the con- 
venience of the Higher-Castes. The most common 
form of trespass is that called Poaching. The High- 
Castes own all the lands, and the Low-Castes, who till 
the soil, are the ancient slaves — slaves no longer under 
any law, but nearly as much so by custom. Very poor, 
but little better than beggars, and really beggars in 
large numbers, and hungry, the temptation to knock 
over the abundant nearly tame creatures (birds, fowls, 
hares, and the like) everywhere around them in the 
fields and copses, is too strong to be resisted. To do 
this is to be a Poacher — a criminal most detested by 
the High-Caste; for he presumes to think, in some 
cases, that the right in these free creatures is not 
absolutely vested in the Higli-Castes. Yet this sort of 
property is most rigidly preserved , by the penalties of 
severe punishment, to the use of the High-Caste — for 
his sport in the shooting of them, rather than for food. 
The Poacher, who is merely tempted by hunger, and 
who abjectly begs pity and promises reformation, 
escapes in some instances lightly; but he who presumes 
to question the right to this wholesale appropriation 
feels the full wrath of the Law. 

Petty civil and criminal offences may be tried by 
the Provincial Magistracy; subject, however, in cases 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 79 

involving any interests of importance, to revision at 
the Capital. 

There is a sort of Provincial (and yet Metropolitan) 
Court called Convocation [Kal-ti-se]. In this, things 
touching the Christ-god Superstition are determined. 
If a Bonze has not worn, or has worn improperly, his 
neck-tie, or his surplice [ro-bsi] ; if the table before the 
Altar (Idol) has been placed out of square ; for things 
of this sort — or if a Bonze be accused of departing 
from the ordered rendering of some word in the S acred 
Writings , or of having said something contrary to the 
orders of Convocation or of the rites — for these and 
other things respecting the great Idolatry, Convocation 
sits. It is composed of High Bonzes and a few dele- 
gates of High-Caste devotees, whose duty is merely to 
ratify the decisions of the High Bonzes — these regulate 
-everything. 

This High and Lofty Court was anciently styled Star 
Chamber , because exalted above mere mortal interests, 
.and only concerned with the preservation of the Idolatry. 
Formerly it worshipped the Sovereign as Pope of the 
Superstition more devotedly than is the fashion at 
present, and burnt people to death for refusing to do 
so. Now it refrains from this severity, and is content 
(or tries to be) with depriving a Bonze who doubts, of 
his living , and all honours and emoluments. 

It still convenes in the old hall of its former glory. 
A venerable moss-covered pile, vast and gloomy, with 
lofty towers and turrets of rock, with hewn cells and 
deep dungeons. Here may be seen, fixed to the rock, 
the rings and chains, worn and rusty with age, where 


80 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


the victims of superstition suffered beneath the decrees 
of this ancient Court. Slow and proud, along the dark 
stone corridors, and beneath the dusky arches of this 
great prison-palace, the High Bonzes and the devotees- 
walk in state. Ushered with pompous ceremonial, and 
with the grand incantations to the gods and devils of 
the Superstition, into the lofty and obscure hall of the 
Star-Chamber, the Convocation sits. In deep alcoves- 
around are stored the ponderous volumes, contain- 
ing all the mysteries and terrors of the Superstition. 
In these are the horrid imaginings of fanatical Priests 
and devotees ; the dogmas and canons of the Superstition; 
the dreadful arsenal, whence were drawn those frightful 
weapons of superstitious terror, whence issued the chains 
and bolts, and scourges, the faggots and the flames. One 
hears the groans of the tortured, the steps of the jailers, 
the clashing of the chains, when, in these long and re- 
sounding aisles and arches, the winds moan, the distant 
footsteps fall, or the old casements in the ruinous towers 
shake and rattle. 

N or is the arsenal wholly useless now ; the weapons 
are not all rusty ; anathemas may yet be found to terrify, 
and restraints to punish. Heresy [pho-phi], as any doubt 
concerning the Queen-pope and the Superstition is called, 
drives the culprit from Society, deprives the Bonze of all 
preferment, of his employment, and turns him igno- 
miniously adrift , to live or to starve. 

Convocation watches over the Sacred Writings , to see 
that no change, not so much as of a syllable, be made ; 
not trusting to Jah, who may have himself, perhaps, 
grown indifferent to the matter. A curious thing, 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


81 


showing how irrationally men will act in respect of an. 
irrational system. For the notion is that this Word of 
Jah (the Sacred Writings), being his Revelation (Word), 
have always been by Him exactly preserved through all 
the ages and the changes of languages, and of transcription, 
and of everything to this hour. Why is it to be supposed, 
then, that He will suddenly lose his power to preserve, 
or will be indifferent to preserve ? 

Punishments in the ordinary Courts are not very re- 
markable, only there is one so characteristic of the 
English, so comically barbarous, that I will try to de- 
scribe it. 

The offender is stripped naked to the waist, tied 
up with his hands widely extended, and with his face 
to a strong post ; then a man takes a large strong cat, 
kept hungry and savage for the purpose, and placing 
the creature at the back of the neck, draws it forcibly 
down the naked back. Of course the cat holds on with 
teeth and claws. This is repeated till the culprit 
faints, when the cat is removed. The back of the man 
is washed with vinegar and salt, and he revives, perhaps 
to undergo the infliction again. This astonishing mode 
of correcting offenders is called flogging with the cat 

1 may also make a remark upon another feature of 
criminal punishment. The crime of treason, not only 
insures the death, but the horrid mutilation of the 
culprit; and, not satisfied with this, reaches to the 
innocent wife and children. All the estates, titles, 
honours, properties of the offender are sequestrated to 
the State, and his blood is attainted; that is, made 
incapable of giving honour and employment to his off- 

G 


82 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


spring ! Thus the innocent are disgraced, and reduced, 
not merely to beggary, but, as far as possible, placed in 
a condition of hopeless misery ! 

The Idolatry and Sacred Writings are, no doubt, 
responsible for this impolitic injustice and cruelty. For 
Jah is constantly made by the Priests to say, that he 
visits the sins of the father upon his child even to the 
tenth generation ! A natural development of the moral 
sense would fall short of this vindictiveness; and in 
this false and horrible wrath, taught in their Sacred 
Writings , the fierce Barbarians are encouraged to outdo 
themselves ! 

The greatest of all the Courts, and which chiefly 
controls the others, is the High and Mighty Court of 
Chancery. It has many names — as Court of Equity, 
of the King’s Conscience, and others — assuming as 
many styles and jurisdictions as the ancient Proteus 
of Egypt; who, as the Priests said, could take any 
form, or no form, be fire, or cloud, or invisible air. So 
this Court, feared by the Barbarians with a paralyzing 
dread, takes on any shape ! It stands for the King’s 
conscience — which, as the conscience of a Pope-king, 
must be a doubly divine thing. For, as remarked else- 
where, “ Divinity doth hedge a King !” We, I think, 
should fear that this conscience would be as uncertain 
as the man. Its function is, therefore, to decide with 
Equity ; to relieve against the inexorable hardness of 
the ancient rules ; and give relief in cases of mistake , 
accident , and fraud. This looks admirable, but it is all 
sham (phu-dgi). 

Not the least attention is really paid to equity, but 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


83 


only to tlie decrees of the Court as recorded. A Suitor 
petitions for redress. The petition is not examined to 
he determined upon the matters therein stated. First 
— The Petition must he in all respects in due form, 
according to the recorded rules. Second — The matter 
of it must he such as the Court will consider, and such 
as may come before the Court. Third — Are the Parties 
in the Jurisdiction, and are all the parties who may he 
interested, duly notified and present ; or, if not present, 
accounted for. Fourth — Are the matters for the Court 
only, or must it he assisted by some petty judges to 
ascertain the facts. Fifth — The petition being at last 
before the Judge, he may not look into it, unless the 
Lawyers look into it with him; and, then, no opinion 
(decree) can he given until the Records are fully 
examined, to discover if anything of the sort has been 
relieved. If a similar case he found, then the petitioner 
is called upon to prove his case as stated in his 
petition ; and, if he fail to prove his exact case (though 
he may make a stronger show for relief), he is ordered 
out of Court, and condemned to heavy costs (tin-tin). 
If the case he proved, then the Judge reserves his 
judgment. For he must very carefully compare all 
the cases, examine all the voluminous Records, besides 
examining the innumerable Papers which have grown 
up around the Petition during all the proceedings 
(often spreading over many years), before he dare to 
order the recording of his decree. For, this done, he has 
added another Case to the King’s conscience ; that is, 
to the highest form of Law and of human Justice ! 

He dare not do this unless justified by the Records ; 


84 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


interminable, stretching backwards to the first King 
who pretended to have a conscience ; obscure, contra- 
dictory — he dare not unless justified by the Eecords — 
Precedents. If he mistake, grossly, he will be certain to 
be called to account by the Lawyer-Caste, who make a 
business of seeking for discrepancies ; in fact, he is 
bewildered — not by the case ; that is simple, or vjcls 
originally, simple enough ; but, by the arguments of the 
Lawyers, the documents overlying and enveloping the 
case, and by the difficulty of deciding according to the 
Precedents. Could he merely announce his own judg- 
ment, there is no difficulty — but that is the last thing 
to be thought of — in truth, if reduced to that , he is 
bound to refuse any relief, however clear it is that equity 
requires it ! 

Thus the Judge, old and wearied; a man tottering 
over his grave, feeble, irresolute, takes the course which 
may be looked for — and postpones, and postpones; other 
ike cases accumulate on his hands ; he dismisses some, 
“reserves” others, refers to another judge what he can 
decently, decides none ! Or only those which are petty, 
or those which are really unopposed, or those exciting 
no interest. 

Meantime, the parties to the Petition are dead, or 
absconded, or beggared. Years have elapsed; all parties 
are worn out or impoverished by the enormous expenses 
— at length, there is no one to pay Lawyers and the 
Court Officers — the thing lapses — dies. Term after Term 
(as Sessions of the Court are called), the Case is called. 
Some poor wretch struggles still to save something of 
the property tied up in the Court by the Case — he tries 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


85 


to call up from the mass of dusty and forgotten Becords, 
a reminiscence of the lost Petition. In vain — the thing 
is a wreck, and has wrecked its builders ! 

The Case lies forgotten amid the interminable pro- 
cesses, affidavits, answers, pleas, replications, rejoinders, 
motions, applications, notices, subpoenas, summonses, 
commissions, bills of amendments, and of supplement ; 
documents of all sorts, making up the Case, mouldering 
away in the stone alcoves of the huge Becords ; as the 
poor victims of it lie mouldering in similar forgetfulness ! 
Not, however, without profit to the Lawyer- Caste ; for 
some miscreant of this profession, perchance, discovering 
the Case, in his searches after means of spoil, sees how 
he niay gain by it. He knows of an estate remotely 
touched by the matter of the old and forgotten Petition, 
and he knows quite well that there is really nothing 
affecting the property ; yet, he sees fees and spoil. It 
is merely to frighten the possessor of the estate by an 
intimation of a defect of title, and refer to this old Case, 
never decided. The bandit [khe-te] sets in motion the 
machinery of the High Court of Chancery. One of its 
officers summonses the poor man to come into that 
Court, and answer to the allegations touching his right 
to possess the house in which, perhaps, he has lived for 
twenty years ! and lived without objection from any 
source ! 

Now it does not matter at all that there is no sort of 
ground for this attack ; the moment it is made, the 
title of the poor unoffending man to his own house is 
ruined — almost as completely as if by the sentence of 
the Court he had been deprived of it. The robber who 


36 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


attacks wishes merely to force the owner of. the house 
to buy him off. To secure this spoil lie records his sum- 
mons in the Court , and from that moment no one will 
buy the house, nor will any one lend any money upon 
the security of it until that record be removed. If the 
victim of this oppression be in debt, or have but little 
money, or but little more than his house, or if he have 
borrowed money upon his house — in fact, unless he be 
a man quite rich, he is inevitably ruined ! He is 
ruined, because the lawyer has, by the Record , practically 
deprived him of his estate. And this is done by a 
Petition to the Court, making allegations artfully and 
untrue. Yet, as they are not supported by any sort of 
evidence, and are merely' bare insinuations often of any- 
body — it does not the least matter — is it not incon- 
ceivable that such a thing should be allowed ? That 
merely upon the Record of a Petition, without any 
evidence, without any character, without any surety 
for its truth, without any, the least, inquiry, or any, the 
smallest deposit in Court to cover the expenses to 
which the summoned party may be put, should it ap- 
pear he has been wrongfully summoned— this great 
injustice may be perpetrated, and perpetrated without 
risk of any punishment ! “ But surely the Court will 

immediately dismiss this iniquitous case ?” Hot at all; 
the Court cannot be reached; all the endless proceedings 
and delays already mentioned intervene. The fees and 
expenses are enormous — the decision far off. The vic- 
tim cannot get a hearing. He borrows money and em- 
ploys lawyers — in vain. He can do no more — he is 
bankrupt. The lawyer who has ruined him gets 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


87 


nothing in such a case, because the victim prefers 
poverty to gratifying the robber. He gets nothing, 
because he has no real case, and drops it as soon as he 
sees he can make nothing out of it. Should the party 
be very rich upon whom the robbery is attempted, he 
may fight it out and finally clear his property, and get 
a decree for some costs (only a portion) against the 
other party. But this decree is worthless ; the party 
has no property and cannot pay. He has fought for 
luck , having nothing to lose, but all to gain. 

Usually, however, as the Lawyer well knows, the 
party attacked will hurry to buy off the suit ! 

In this way, old Causes are Mines, which the Lawyer- 
Caste work to their own peculiar advantage. They 
have every facility, both from their experience and from 
the usages of the Caste. The very Judges of the Courts 
are of the same Caste, and give every assistance in 
matters of forms, continuances, motions, dilatory pro- 
ceedings, and the countless processes by which Lawyers 
make fees and their clients are robbed. 

Thus the Court of Equity, with a mocking irony, 
becomes a Court of Iniquity ! and the very tribunal 
designed to do more perfect Justice is perverted to the 
most scandalous use — made an engine the most oppres- 
sive and destructive ever contrived for the misery of 
Society, short of one invented to destroy it wholly ! 

The Court was originally organised by Priests who 
had acquired the Eoman learning, or some tincture of 
it, and endeavoured to strengthen their own Class, and 
to soften the barbarous harshness of the common Law, 
by erecting this Court. The laws of the Barbarians 


88 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


were savage, in civil as well as in criminal things ; and 
the Priests, more cultured, endeavoured to soften and 
temper this harshness, or, at any rate, to get more com- 
plete control by it. They formed it, and administered 
it at first, and for a long time. But the Lawyer-Caste 
have now its administration, and they have not so much 
respect for the opinions of the general public as had the 
Priests, and have made the Court a bye-word and a 
shame [Kri-mi] ! 

The expenses and fees are beyond belief. A Lawyer 
who gets one good Chancery Case into his hands, lives 
upon it luxuriously. I was once shown a Bill of Costs , 
as these items of fees are styled. 

I observed that one would be charged for a thing 
done and fot the same thing not done — in other 
words, for the doing and for the not-doing. Thus, if 
one requests a thing be done, the Lawyer will charge 
for “ receiving instructions,” “ for reducing the same to 
writing,” “ for instructing a clerk,” and the like — then, 
having sent away the clerk on another matter, he will 
charge for taking new instructions and going over the 
same ground again. Thus, actually charging for the 
delay and obstruction caused in the affair. 

Again, if you ask a Lawyer something, he will pre- 
sently say, “ I must take counsel,” meaning he wishes 
to ask another Lawyer. When the Bill is examined 
you will find, say, “ for being asked and not knowing, 
6s. 8d. ; for taking your instructions to counsel, 6s. 8d.; 
for attending upon counsel, £1 Is. ; for fair copy made 
for him, £2 2s. and so on. Your simply unanswered 
question has thus served the following purposes : — If it 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


89 


had been answered at once the fee would have been, 
say, 6s. 8d. ; but as it was not, but carried elsewhere, 
it has given the first Lawyer five times more of fees, 
and his brother in the Caste also a handsome sum ! One 
may judge how ignorant the first Lawyer will be likely 
to be, and how often he finds it convenient to help his 
higher Caste brother, especially when in helping him he 
so greatly helps himself! We have some cunning- 
rogues in our Central Kingdom, but such astuteness as 
this is beyond them ! 

I once visited this tribunal of Chancery to witness 
the proceedings — but they are so dull and prolix as to 
drive one away as soon as possible. The presiding 
Judge, and all the High-Caste Lawyers, wear wigs and 
gowns. The lower Lawyers, who are called Solicitors, 
sit in a sort of well, below and at the feet of the High, 
and have no badge of distinction. In fact, they are 
not respected, and only tolerated by the bigwigs (as the 
High Lawyers are often called) as the jackals who pro- 
vide them with prey. They immediately act in matters 
with the victims of the Court, and do all the dirty 
work, extracting the fees, and the like — the High 
Lawyers taking the most of the plunder, although, for 
decency sake, they will not see the victims of their 
rapacity if they can help it. 

The wigs spoken of are very absurd, and make the 
wearers seem to be engaged in masquerading, or fooling. 
(We have no term corresponding to the former.) The 
lappets of thick hair come down over the ears of the 
Judge, to enable him (as it occurred to me) to take his 
nap [qu-iz] with less danger of being disturbed. 


00 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


No one can be a Judge, nor a High-Caste Lawyer, who 
does not wear the wig. It has a funny appendage be- 
hind, like a pig’s tail, exactly fitting to fall upon the 
small of the neck; and is itself a curiously curled 
“ frizzle ” of horsehair, selected for uniformity of 
whitish colour. There is something cabalistic in this 
thing, which is carefully hidden from the outside 
world. 

If a Judge take it off, all business immediately stops. 
A Lawyer instantly loses his power of speech if his wig 
fall off. It was told me in confidence, that the tail 
(like that of swine) had a peculiar significance, to say ; 
the utter selfishness of the Caste and greed — another 
whispered a darker thing, referred to the Devil of the 
Superstition : that, anciently, this Caste struck a bargain 
with the Demon, and he made it obligatory upon the 
Lawyers always to wear this chief sign of diabolism f 
This may be merely the chaff [pti-ni] of these Bar- 
barians. At any rate, something occult is attached to 
the thing ; and a curious respect is shown to it, mixed 
of fear and contempt, even by outsiders. 

The Judge sits so highly exalted, as to be out of the 
way of hearing the passages occurring among the Law- 
yers. He is generally half-blind, half-deaf; quite worn 
out with age, and the ceaseless wretchedness of his 
Court and the Lawyers, and incapable of vigorously 
dealing with anything. In this Court the most im- 
becile is most fit; for nothing is expected but imbe- 
cility (so far as the public is concerned), and fees for 
Officers and Lawyers. 

When a Case is on , the Lawyers begin to talk, and to- 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


91 


read from the big books, on one side, and then on the 
other. Neither tries to get at the truth, but each in 
turn does his best to mislead the Judge. - Both read 
from the interminable and conflicting Records, and both 
find ample records which tit the precise Case, which 
each contends for. The poor old Judge, now and again, 
takes a note of these quotations from the Big Books of 
records — for he is to decide not upon the equity but 
upon the records, as we have seen. By the time he has 
found his spectacles [Qu-iei] he has forgotten the Book, 
the number, the Recorder’s name, and the many other 
things, needful to find where the record is, and when 
he is again told, lifting up his wig-pallet, he only hears 
imperfectly, and mistakes . So, when, perhaps a long 
time after, he tries to make up a decree to fit the Case, 
the record to which he turns refers to nothing in the 
world like what was intended ! 

Hour after hour, and sometimes day after day, these 
speeches of the Lawyers go on. For the longer the talk 
the larger the fees — nobody thinks of Justice ! The old 
Judge understands the trick of the farce going on, per- 
fectly well ; in his younger days he was famous for his 
skill in all the arts of the High-Caste Lawyers, and 
obtained his present position on that account, and be- 
cause others wanted to get a formidable rival out of the 
way; he understands how very little (but fees) is in- 
volved in the endless talk and reading, and begins to 
nod — e ven, the gods would nod. The Lawyer observes, 
stops a bit ; the unexpected silence awakens the wearied 
old man — he opens his watery, blinking eyes, fumbles 
his papers, or takes a pinch of snuff, and says : “ Go on, 


92 . ’ SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 

brother Bounce, I’m with you ” — meaning he is attending 
to him ; and soon falls asleep again. 

Perhaps one of the talking Lawyers is of the High 
Q.C. I am told that such is the dread of this Lawyer- 
Caste, that the Sovereign constantly flatters the tribe, 
and gives to them the fattest [phig-sti] offices. All 
Judges and the Keeper of the Sovereign’s Conscience — 
this Court — and a great many other most important 
places, and exaltation to the Highest Caste of Lords 
[Tchou], falls to them by established rule — in truth, the 
Caste is chief in the Law-making Houses, and, conse- 
quently, in Government itself. The Q.C. is, however, a 
thing done to many who cannot, as yet, get fees from 
the public treasure, that they may get them from out- 
siders more amply. The right to attach these symbols 
to the name of Lawyer also gives him a silk gown 
(during the present reign) worked by the sacred hands 
of Eoyalty itself! The honoured wearer of this is a 
Q.C. — that is, Queen’s Champion — and binds all its 
wearers to defend the Sacred Head (Pope) of the Super- 
stition from the machinations of the Evil One, and 
those of their own order who, sold to the Devil, may 
possibly be put up by him to plot mischief, not only 
against the general outside world, but against “ Crown 
and Altar ! ” 

Perhaps, after days of this weary work, one of the 
Lawyers suddenly discovers that somebody, or some- 
thing required in the intricate and dubious processes, is 
wanting ; or in some document some erasure is de- 
tected ; or something to hang a point upon is seized 
hold of — and at once a wrangle between the Lawyers 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


93 


ensues. The Judge fairly awakes ; the whole case, 
breaks down [kei-tz-se] ; and everybody, but the poor 
victims in the case, anticipate more fees. The victims, 
however, who have already beggared themselves in it, 
suddenly despair ; perhaps the case never again comes 
on, and the property involved in it wastes away in dark 
obscurity beneath the gnawing rats, which infest the 
Court. 

Sometimes (as I was told) some poor man, or woman, 
who had scraped together the last farthings to pay the 
Lawyers (for they will in no wise act unless paid 
beforehand, feeling that such service as they render is 
not likely to be gratefully recompensed, and it being 
the severest rule of the order never to show any pity 
for outsiders), being in Court when they see all hope 
destroyed, and themselves and their children beggared, 
have fallen down and been carried out of Court with 
reason for ever gone ; or with such a deadly blow that 
never more do they revive, but soon die, and are buried 
at the public charge ! 

You will see wretched creatures trying to look 
decent in well-brushed rags, darned and patched, with 
shoes through which the toes protrude, but over which 
the blacking [di-yte] is carefully smeared — you will 
see these victims of the Court, like ghosts, flitting about 
the passages, and watching for the entry of the Judge. 
One will attempt to address him — but he is con- 
veniently deaf. He knows the victim is there, and 
though a party may speak, has the right to speak for 
himself, and the Judge is bound to hear, yet, such a 
thing is unknown. The mysteries of the Court deny 


94 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


to any sane man the attempt. These poor creatures 
are insane — or, what answers just as well, have been 
branded by the Lawyers as Insane. So the miserable 
wretch, trembling, raises his voice, “My Lud ” (meaning 
my Lord), “My Lud;” here the Court-officer cries out 
Silence ; or, if the man be, for the first time , attempting 
to call attention to his case, by the time he has got so 
far as to fairly say “ My Lud ! ” w T hat with the jeering 
looks of the Lawyers, his own ignorance of the mys- 
teries, and his wretchedness, he either completely 
breaks down — or if the Judge, seeing a new face, asks 
him to “go on” — almost at once perceives that the man 
is only a “ poor ruined suitor,” and is entirely out of 
order, and cannot be heard ! He says : “ You must sit 
down. Case Hoygs v. Piggs is in order. Mr. Clerk call 
Hogs and Piggs.” Thus “ My Lud ” will be as far as 
any “ poor ruined suitor will ever get !” 

Besides the numerous, worse than useless, idlers 
(Lawyers) who fatten upon the industry of others, and 
the loss inflicted by their voracity and by the other 
expenses, this Court devastates upon a scale beyond 
belief. I was told by an English Barbarian that 
he once tried to obtain one thousand of money from the 
Court, which the lawyers said there would be no diffi- 
culty in getting, as it was clearly his; it would be only 
a matter of form, possibly some delay. “ Well,” said 
he to me, “ I instructed my lawyer to go to the Court 
and get the money. He demanded fifty pounds to 
cover fees [tin]. To make a short story, he went to the 
Court, but I never got any money ! After I had actually 
paid in fees more than half of the one thousand, the 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


95 


obstacles liad grown to be so insurmountable that I 
merely dropped the matter.” “But,” I said, “the 
thousand — who has that ?” “ Oh, it is in the Court of 

Chancery !” 

Another honest Barbarian told me that he had spent 
all his life (he was sixty) studying and endeavouring 
to awaken attention to the abuses of this Court — but in 
vain. The attempt seemed hopeless. The Court was 
entrenched in the very frame of the body politic, and 
nothing but reconstruction would answer ; and that re- 
construction is probably only possible after first 
demolishing ! 

This man said that a prodigious sum — sixty mil- 
lions of English money — was directly locked up ; and 
that of property of all sorts, subject to the clutch or 
injured by the processes of the Court it was incal- 
culable, and, very likely, would represent a tenth of all 
the valuables in the whole Kingdom ! 

In my walks and in my travels, sometimes in the 
city, I would notice many houses, with windows smashed 
out, the walls tottering, the doors hanging loosely, or 
wholly gone, the approaches filthy, the whole place a 
nuisance , injuring and depopulating all about it, or fill- 
ing the ever-spreading mischief with the vilest popula- 
tion. I have asked an explanation — “ Oh, it is in 
Chancery.” In the midst of a village^ suddenly one 
comes upon a vacant space ; it is an abomination ; 
everything near catches the infection, all that portion of 
an otherwise pretty place becomes a nuisance. The 
character of the village at length suffers ; it becomes 
known as a place ruined by the Court of Chancery. In 


96 


SOME PARTICULARS OF THE 


fine, whenever one sees a wrecked building, or any 
property marked by neglect and verging to total destruc- 
tion, the explanation is : “ It is in Chancery” And the 
same thing is often said of ruined men and women : 
“Oh, they have lost everything in the Court of 
Chancery ! ” 

To such an extent is the destruction of the Court 
carried, that the Law-making Houses are forced to in- 
terfere, or perhaps the Officers of Health. These may 
abate a nuisance , and sometimes mere filth and inde- 
cencies are removed. But nobody will improve a pro- 
perty to which he cannot have a certain and quiet pos- 
session. Therefore, when the evil becomes intolerable, 
the Law-making Houses make a Law by which a pro- 
perty of this sort is sold, under their guarantee that the 
buyer shall have perfect possession. This is a thing 
next to an impossibility ; and nothing less than a great 
public evil too great to be endured, will ever induce the 
Lawyers who control the Houses to interfere with the 
legitimate work of the Court. 

It is wonderful that the English Barbarians submit to 
this Court ; but one must consider that, after all, it is 
not so inconsistent with Barbarian habits as it at first 
sight looks. Plunder is natural to all the tribes, and es- 
pecially to the English. As nearly all plunder, the thing 
is normal. Lawyers must live ; and the common 
English Barbarian makes a business to keep out of their 
hands. The Higher Castes enjoy so large a share of 
the gains, and are, in fact, so largely interested in pre- 
serving the Court, that they do not care to move. Then, 
to other causes, must be added the stolid conceit of the 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


97 


English Barbarians, who really think everything 
English so much better than what can be found else- 
where, that, in respect of this very Court, admitting 
some abuses, yet, after all, “ Where else can you find 
such Judges — men who cannot be bribed ?” 

On the whole, therefore, with that conceited stolidity 
of character, more remarkable in the English than in 
any other Barbarians, they come to regard even the 
worst of their institutions as better than the best of the 
rest of the world ! 



II 


98 


UPON EDUCATION: 


CHAPTER IY. 

UPON EDUCATION : A FEW REFLECTIONS. 

In our Illustrious and Central Kingdom, from times 
long before the Barbarians beyond the great Seas 
existed, or, at any rate, had any name or place in the 
earliest records, it has been the established rule that 
Learning (Li-te-su) should be the fountain of honour 
— that there is no nobility of birth. Under the Illus- 
trious, the Son of Heaven, all were equal subjects — 
children — and that which made one more distinguished 
than another was Wisdom. This Wisdom, a knowledge 
of men and things ; of the proper maxims [ri-te-es] of 
morality and government, and their proper application 
to human affairs. The Central idea was to know oneself \ 
and thus to know others — to add to this, technical 
knowledge, and the knowledge of our Illustrious annals 
and customs. 

The mandarins, great officers of our Illustrious, have 
no rights of birth. According to their class in the 
Schools of Examination, they are selected to advise, to 
administer, to govern in the Provinces, and order the 
forces for the keeping of due order. They rank in the 
degree of the excellency of their registration in the 
great Schools of Examination. 


A FEW REFLECTIONS. 


99 


But it is very different with the Western Barbarians, 
where birth gives a right to exalted place in Govern- 
ment ! Power, among the English, is wholly in the 
hands of this hereditary class — called Nobility — else- 
where called Aristocracy [Fo-hi]. Thus, learning has 
been unimportant, unless as a sort of accomplishment ; 
and been mostly confined to Priests. With them, it was 
a means of increased influence, and added to the effect 
of the Superstitious pretensions. Force and fraud being 
the main agents of Government and sources of dis- 
tinction, learning was not merely disregarded, but held 
in contempt by the High-Caste. What learning there 
was (chiefly confined to the Priests), busied itself with 
the Superstition, and with the ancient tongues ; because 
with these Superstition had its literary roots. 

Still, some grew more inquisitive, especially outside 
the Priestly order, and learning made some progress. 
Gradually, there emerged from the Halls of Learning, 
rules, which (countenanced by some Sovereigns), began 
to influence Society. For Sovereigns, and the High- 
Caste, had begun, in some measure, to affect a liking 
for learning— confined, however, almost wholly to the 
narrow range referred to. These rules were in fact 
degrees ; which conferred upon the possessor a Literary 
distinction. 

The Halls of Learning , which had been in good 
measure established by Sovereigns, out of plunder, upon 
the orders of Priests (who would obtain the money 
through the Euler’s dread of the devil, when appre- 
hending or near to death) ; these, alone, could confer the 
degrees. Ho power accompanied them. They, merely, 


100 


UPON EDUCATION: 


became requisite to any one who wished to enter upon, 
what is called, the Learned professions. These are of 
the Superstition, of the Law, and of Medicine. Soon, in 
these employments, the degrees became quite Cabalistic ; 
and made these callings mysteries to the rest of the 
world. 

What was intended to be evidence of fitness, was 
soon perverted to be a form of initiation into an exclu- 
sive Society ; whose members insisted, not upon fitness, 
but upon compliance with arbitrary rules. This was 
made especially the case with the Law, and with Medi- 
cine. The degree was supposed to refer to proper 
qualifications for the practice of Law, and knowledge of 
Medicine, with its proper use in the healing art. It 
did nothing of the sort. It gave a presumption (but by 
no means a true one) that its holder knew something of 
the ancient Boman and Greek languages : not any pre- 
sumption that, in the case of Medicine, there was any 
knowledge of the articles of Medicine, nor of their 
proper use ; or of the human body to which they were 
to be administered. Nor any, that in the Law, there 
was any knowledge of the Statutes, laws and customs of 
the Bealm, nor even of its Common annals ! Medicine 
and Law suffered from this Sham ; because men natu- 
rally used what little they did know; and, as to the 
Boman tongue, some , and the Greek, less, were in their 
heads; and the whole practice of Medicine and Law 
was in their ignorant hands ; what could follow, but to 
muddle these with the useless obscurity and jargon of 
the unknown forms ! 

The Priests had also thrown around the Superstition 


A FEW REFLECTIONS. 


101 


the same jargon, and kept up the requisition for a 
degree , — as if any true morality and worship were neces- 
sarily connected with a literature , denounced by them- 
selves as impure and 'pagan ! Notwithstanding these 
ignorant and selfish abuses, it was impossible to make 
the acquisition of even such narrow learning wholly 
useless. It was narrow, and even hurtful, by being 
perverted to selfish ends, and preventing honest and 
independent research. Still, it did work upon some 
minds to better use ; and it gradually evolved a better 
learning, when the Ancient Literature really worked in 
free and broader channels. The High-Castes are less 
indifferent to literary attainments; and learning, in a 
more comprehensive sense, is becoming more esteemed. 
It is no longer limited to verbal knowledge ; to ancient, 
dead forms — though these are still so paramount that, 
if a man were to be the wisest and most learned of 
mankind, and w T as deficient in these, he could not receive 
a Degree — he would be unlearned ! 

Useful, true and honest knowledge, outside the great 
Halls of Learning, is making some advance ; though in 
them , the old, pedantic, and superstitious notions yet 
prevail. The new Literati , founders of a larger and truer 
teaching, endeavour with difficulty to get some respect 
and honour to attach to the degrees which they timidly 
register. The High-Caste, in general, disregard this 
better knowledge, and adhere to the old Superstitions 
and traditions — regarding that man only as learned who 
has the ancient badge; though, to any useful purpose, a 
fool. 

The High-Caste also stupidly support the old pre- 


102 


UPON EDUCATION : 


paratory schools ; and will not, if they can help it, suffer 
any of the Lower-Caste to enter them. 

In these, the barbarous customs continue ; if one goes 
into them, he is at once carried backwards into the dark 
ages (as even the Barbarians call them) ; ages, when the 
Priests had all the Learning — wretched as it was — and 
when the Superstition coloured and directed everything. 
Here, the dead tongues are the chief studies, with some- 
thing of the ancient puzzles as to Lines and Points — for 
the most part useless — with a style of administration 
fitted to the savage brutality of those times. The only 
part of the training cared for by the youths, is that 
which developes the forces of the body. The disgusting 
Ring Fight, referred to elsewhere, is a common pastime ; 
and the lad is a milksop [kou-ad] who really avoids 
the rude crowd, and wishes to study. To be respected 
he must fight his way, and be feared. If, by chance, 
some lad of the Lower-Caste be entered, by the foolish 
wish of the father to bring the son into the polished 
circle of the High-Caste, he will be polished off (as these 
young Barbarians say), in a manner never dreamed of. 
The poor lad will be beaten, humiliated, and driven 
from the School ; unless, indeed, he be strong enough to 
bully and beat his tormentors ! 

Very comically, in one part of these brutal fights, 
when one has got his antagonist completely in his 
power, and can bruise him as he pleases, the position 
is called being in Chancery ! One of the fittest illus- 
trations possible, of the universality of the judgment 
which places that Court among things the most re- 
pulsive ! 


A FEW REFLECTIONS. 


103 


The younger in these schools are the Slaves, for the 
time being, to the older and stronger ; in fact, the whole 
effect of the training is really to make these youths 
selfish, quick of quarrel, hardy of body, and barbarous ; 
to prepare them for the lives of predatory exploit, 
upon which fortune and all the best honours depend — 
learning being subordinate, and disregarded, unless it 
further the main purpose. 

Force is still the god of these Barbarians, and Jah is 
worshipped because he, in this, fits them. The intellect 
is improved only that Force may be developed and dis- 
ciplined to its most effective use. 

One sees this everywhere. To invent the most de- 
structive engines of war for the wholesale slaughter of 
the human species, to add to the swiftness of move- 
ment, to the durability and weight of action, to the 
means of assault and of defence, to bend the mind to 
uses based upon the idea that the normal condition of 
man is that of a tiger with man's intellect, to make the 
beast something inexpressibly dreadful ! 

The greater portion of the people remain sunk in the 
grossest ignorance— scarcely knowing (the most of them) 
much even of the Superstition, other than crude notions 
of Hell and the Devil. In this, probably, they are not 
much to be pitied; though in losing the precepts of 
Christ, and seeing around them the conduct of Christ- 
god worshippers, they are to be commiserated. They 
look with the contempt of ignorance upon foreigners, 
and call the people of distant seas Heathen, only fit for 
the Hell ! As I have said, in another place, some 
attempts are being made to give this degraded popu- 


104 


UPON EDUCATION : 


lace, at least; the rudiments of learning. The task is 
hard, and made nearly impracticable by the stolid indif- 
ference of the Low-Castes, and their positive hostility to 
anything which interferes with their habits. They are 
very English, not different from their betters, and resent 
any sort of change as an interference with their indivi- 
dual freedom of action. To make these degraded beings 
slaves , you must not seize the individual — you must act 
upop them as a class — and they resent the attempt to 
teach them. Compulsion will be resorted to. The 
English Barbarians have a proverb [li-tze],“ One may lead 
a horse to the water, but who can make him drink ? ", 
These people may be forced to the springs of learning, 
but who shall make them drink — unless beer ? (This 
is the common drink, very muddling ; used to an 
astonishing quantity.) 

The women are not admitted to the Halls of Learn- 
ing, though they are to be seen everywhere. Men do 
not wish them to be educated in those things admired 
by men — it would, as they think, make brutes of them. 
In this they are right ; yet there is no consistency of 
idea in the general treatment of the sex, as will easily 
be gathered from these observations . 

A learned woman — that is, one who has acquired the 
sort of education recognised by the Literati — is disliked 
by her own sex as well as by the men. The men will 
not marry her, unless she can buy a husband. This she 
may be able to do if she have money in abundance. 

The things which may make them attractive and 
entertaining to the men, and be likely to secure a desir- 
able husband, are the only things cared for. Some 


A FEW REFLECTIONS. 


105 


music, some drawing, a little acquaintance, with the 
language of the chief tribe on the main parts* reading 
and writing, are the intellectual studies. But the en- 
grossing pursuits are those which are supposed to add 
to female attractiveness. To dress, so as to enhance 
the delight of form ; to cover, and yet to show with 
added suggestion ; to move with grace ; to carry the 
head ; to use with tender, or arch, or modest, or haughty 
expression, the eyes ; to turn the feet and arrange the 
limbs ; to make the shoulders beautiful, and the neck 
and bust charming ; to torture the hair and ornament 
the whole body ; the ear-tips, the fingers, the eyebrows 
and lashes — to do these, and innumerable other things 
by which the sex shall be made irresistible [Kou-ket], 
these are the real cares. Dancing [ma-d-wo] is among 
the most admired of all accomplishments, and the game 
of Waltzing its most perfect development. In this art 
of dancing both sexes take part, and I may merely say 
to our Flowery Land, that we have nothing like it, and 
what little we have in any degree to represent it is 
confined to licensed girls, without, even with them, per- 
mitting men to take part ! In this dancing the utmost 
female art ( blandishment ) is permitted, and it is the one 
by which, and in the intricacies of which the male is 
most surely expected to be ensnared ! 

Women are, also, particularly among the High-Caste, 
taught in riding on horses, in driving them attached to 
carriages ; in running and walking ; and even in swim- 
ming. Also in rowing in boats, in the use of bows and 
arrows, and many other things, which are very strange 
to us. But the sex like passionately the outdoor sports 


106 


UPON EDUCATION : 


of men ; and, in truth, show the barbarous instinct quite 
as clearly as do the males. They are attached to dogs, 
cats, and other creatures, which they fondle and dandle 
in the most disgusting manner. 

The women of the Low-Castes, to the best of their 
ability, follow the example of their superiors ; and make 
such copy as they can. They imitate the dress, the 
gait, the airs and graces of the High-Caste, often with a 
ludicrous effect ! When they dance, they may not 
dance with the elegant abandon [lan-gu-tze] of the lazy 
and rich, but they can contrive to be quite as effective ! 
The male of the Low-Caste feels but cannot escape the 
snare ! 

Accomplishments , directed to the one object of finding 
a desirable man, who will take them at the least cost off 
the hands of their relatives, are the things which occupy 
the time of women ; the lower orders, in so far as pos- 
sible, giving to the poor imitations that time which 
ought to go to useful objects. A poor and obscure girl 
prefers to be something like a lady (that is, a bad copy 
in dress and bearing), than to be really instructed in 
letters : because she sees herself more admired by the 
male, and more likely to dispose of herself to a husband. 

The great pursuit among High-Caste families is man 
— a man who may be bought, and whom it is desirable 
to buy, to be a husband for a daughter, or relative. All 
domestic art and diplomacy are bent to this end ; and, 
as men do not like learned women, whom they nick- 
name strong-minded , women do not wish to be learned. 
If from exceptional circumstances a young woman be 
well educated, and wish to marry, she carefully conceals 


A FEW REFLECTIONS. 


107 


her knowledge, and displays her accomplishments, and 
all “ the power of her charms ” (as the English poets 
have it). An educated female had better appear to be 
an accomplished fool, than a wise and learned woman — 
if she wish to buy a husband. For she must have a 
large sum, indeed, if she be known to be learned ! — a 
Blue-stocking [Zu-re-to]. 

There are some women who have acquired knowledge, 
and look with disdain upon the arts , airs, and graces of 
their “weak Sisters.” They appear in public Halls of 
debate (as talking-places are called) ; and, mixing with 
men, assume an equality of mental force and culture. 
They interest themselves like men, in all matters of 
general- concern. They take in hand, or endeavour to 
take in hand, the care of Women; and demand an en- 
larged sphere for her action, and a reformed and proper 
recognition of her rights. Hence, these women are 
called, besides strong-minded, Women's rights women. 
They are nearly always old, ugly, and wholly and hope- 
lessly incapacitated from longer pursuing men ; even, in 
their inordinate vanity, that pursuit is abandoned. 

There are some trifling exceptions— of women who 
like to astonish, and of others who, in talking, find a 
means of living — to whom all personal comeliness is not 
yet a tradition. But for these, the Women's rights 
movement would dwindle away ; these sometimes com- 
manding an influence either of money or family, draw 
into their circle a few men — remarkable, in general, for 
eccentricity of some kind, or led very often completely 
by a woman of the order. 

The whole thing is inexplicable to our social usages ; 


108 


UPON EDUCATION. 


but is not an excrescence — only a natural outgrowth 
upon a diseased system. The position of women in the 
Barbarian Society is a feature very striking and very 
anomalous, and may receive attention in another place. 

On the whole, one may see that education in its true 
and exalted sense is scarcely comprehended among the 
Barbarians. The moral function and the mind sub- 
ordinate to that, and the body — its passions, its greed, 
its brutality, wholly subordinate to the morally trained 
mind — education, grounded upon this central idea , has 
but feeble recognition. 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 


109 


CHAPTER V. 

OF THE LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 

There are innumerable books; and the conceit of 
these Barbarians attaches to them as to everything in 
their Enlightened World (Litz-i-ten). Nothing outside 
of the Christ-god worshippers is allowed to be en- 
lightened — all else is darkness. This is true as to their 
opinion, strange as it looks ; and all the Literature in 
every part of it shows this. The attainments and the 
experience of all to whom this worship is unknown, 
receive no other than a curious attention from a few of 
the literati. But we know that this conceit is absurd ; 
ignorant and superstitious Barbarians really think that, 
without the adoption of their Jah-Christ-Jew super- 
stition, with all the Canons , no true morality, no real 
civilisation, exists, nor can exist ! 

This I must premise; because we may dismiss at 
once the larger portion of the Barbarian Literature, 
inasmuch as it relates to the great Superstition. It is 
everywhere, striking into and permeating everything, to 
be sure ; but I refer to works avowedly devoted to it. 
It makes the Books largely unreadable to one having 
no sympathy with the author ; and it requires patience 
and a long use to get over the disgust caused by the 
offensive pretensions and ignorant references. 


110 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 

The Poetry of a people is generally placed first among 
the Barbarian Literati ; and of this form the Western 
tribes are very fond. The English boast that in this 
they excel all others ; though, for that matter, the same 
boast is made in everything. 

The larger part of the Poetry may be called trash 
(ru-b-isti). Iterations and reiterations of the same con- 
ceits, the same shallow sentiments, the same metaphors, 
mostly of an amatory and indelicate, sort. Poems, 
often tedious, verbose, strangely mixed with matters 
of the Superstition and of the ancient (Roman) myths ; 
laudatory performances, beslobbering (spr-au-fo) great 
men with empty compliments, or giving lying exaltation 
to the fancied virtues of the eminently bad ; dull and 
long-winded reflections from minds too obscure to 
reflect anything, unless with an added obscurity; an 
enormous Waste (Ban-s-he) which the English them- 
selves never traverse. 

Poetry with the Barbarians is far more esteemed 
than with us, although in our annals are found 
evidences of its immemorial existence. As with us, it 
takes many forms, and is reduced to an art. The two 
greatest names are Milton and Shakespeare. The first 
of these is esteemed as the most sublime of all poets, 
ancient or modern — but it is needful to fix the quality, 
the essence of the sublime ! Of the gloomy grandeur 
of the man, and of his power of suggesting the vast and 
the intangible, there can be no doubt. Nor is he want- 
ing in a mournful sweetness — the plaint of a beneficent 
being who feels an eternal despair ! Nor can it be 
otherwise, for the grand imagination of Milton is 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 


Ill 


wholly occupied with the devils of the Barbarian 
Superstition ! With its terrible images — with the Hell 
in which they and lost men for ever burn in eternal 
fires, and yet are never consumed ! He introduces the 
reader (in his great Poem) to Paradise [Kar-din], where 
man once lived in perfect wisdom and happiness — and 
here the Poet is full of that sad, that tender, that inex- 
pressible, sweet despair ! Prom this Paradise (as said 
elsewhere) man was enticed by Satan, who had been 
set free from Hell for the very purpose ; and then follow 
all the surprising pictures, vast, terrible, indescribable 
— only possible to a mind fully possessed by all the 
horrors of the Jew Jah-god Idolatry. 

Shakespeare, with a healthier mind, one not distorted 
by the Superstition, and with a human, natural vigour 
and feeling, writes in a manner to interest man. On 
the whole, the English Barbarians place him far above 
all others of any time or place — call him the Divine 
Shakespeare ! This is very easy with a people who 
know nothing of the poetry of the great East, nor of 
that of our Elowery Kingdom — in truth, have but a 
slight acquaintance with the writers of the other Bar- 
barians ! 

Disregarding this foolish conceit, we may admit that 
this man shows a broad and comprehensive intellect — 
he is one who knows something of himself, and that 
self is a manly self. And he simply exhibits himself in 
those creations of his fancy, wherein a great variety of 
men and women show the passions, follies, and chang- 
ing interests of life. He has the power of vividly see- 
ing and of clearly showing what in his mind he sees, 


112 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 


and in language often low and uncouth, but frequently 
in fine and lofty tones. His certain knowledge of 
himself gives pithy form to his wit; and his expressions 
are the direct utterances of one who sees, not of one 
who does not nor cannot see. His, on the whole, was 
a very large and true manhood, which, in spite of un- 
favourable influences and some tarnish, manifested 
itself, and occasionally in grand and beautiful forms. 
In very garbage there are sparkling gems. He often 
offends decency, hut is less indecent than his time — 
and when he is simply himself, the natural morality of 
a large man becomes conspicuous. Some of his minor 
things, based on the affectations of his period, and 
formed on had models, which he weakly copies, are not 
without marks of his rich fancy, yet are so indecent 
that in our Flowery Land they would he suppressed. 
None the less, you will find these objectionable verses 
in the hands of the youth of both sexes. 

This degradation of the moral sense is very common. 
It finds form in the versification of those poets whom 
the English style Amatory — chiefly with them, hut 
more repulsively with the play- writers. Examples of 
this indelicacy and coarseness are lying about any- 
where. It seems to us very strange: for to what 
good ? No doubt, poetry very properly deals with 
human emotions and interests ; but why should the 
poet dare to print what he would not dare to utter, 
unless among the shameless ! 

Some of these trivialities are not wanting in sweet- 
ness and tenderness — and some have a very refined 
feeling. The great blemish is falseness. 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 113 ; 

The Western Barbarians addict themselves always to 
a false and affected mode whenever they address them- 
selves to the female : and the style is absurd. It is 
borrowed from the obsolete manners of ages ago, when 
it was the fashion [phan-ti-te] to pretend the most 
exalted reverence for the sex. They were addressed as 
goddesses, and there was a whole armoury of weapons 
of Love, from which these fantastic poets armed their 
divinities, and pretended to be pierced through and 
through, wounded, bleeding, at their feet ! Dying, 
transfixed, and rolling their languishing eyes in death, 
imploring the goddesses to save them, even if by one 
glance of their bright eyes ! The amount of this non- 
sense is perfectly astonishing ! 

I give a fair specimen here from a much admired 
writer of this class : — 

“ Sweet Phillis, idol of my heart, 

Oh, turn to me those tender eyes ! 

Transfix my breast with Cupid’s dart, 

But listen to my dying sighs ! 

“ I cling, imploring, to your knees ; 

Oh, cruel goddess, turn to me ! > 

One kiss the burning pain will ease — 

Thy lips give Immortality- ! ” 

The Elegiac [mo-un-fu] is, perhaps, the most cultured 
among the refined poets. The most distinguished of 
the English living writers of verse is very elegant in 
this form. He cannot emancipate himself from the 
habits of his people — for the wretched he can find no 
solace but in the Superstitions of the Christ-god wor-; 
ship. He demands a Sacrifice quite inhuman, when he 

I 


114 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 

suggests the only remedy for human grief. Possibly, 
he finds in this, a meaning of a different kind from 
what the language (used in the Superstition) itself im- 
plies. He may see a meaning common to all sorrowful 
and thoughtful men — Self-Sacrifice , demanded by the 
highest perception of justice, and, therefore, inevitable. 
In this department some of the minor poets sing very 
sweetly, tenderly — with a nice refinement. Generally, 
however, there is a sort of despair wailing in an under- 
tone of pathos. It would seem to arise from the gloomy 
spirit of the Barbarian nature, intensified by the terrible 
Superstition. 

The comic poets are coarse, trivial, and not much 
esteemed. There is humour, but it is of the barbarous 
and unclean. It is frequently strangely fantastic, and 
delights in laughing at the terrific in the “ Sacred 
W ritingsf or at the Priests, in a covert manner ; often 
in travesties of the prayers, rites , and other holy things, 
which no one would dare openly to ridicule. Poetry 
is not much read, unless by young girls and lads, who, 
in the season of the sentiments, find food to feed their 
desires, or to print their tender epistles and speeches, 
in the Sentimental Authors. 

Very rarely is there anything striking or true ; and 
the mass of Verses, after receiving the paid-for attention 
of the daily writers, sleep a sleep of oblivion. 

The Prose writings are innumerable — largely, how- 
ever, mere re-hashes [mi-pi-stu] of existing works. It is 
a trade to make these new forms of old books — cutting 
down, working over, and revising. History, accounts 
of bloody fights, forays, commotions, massacres, and 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 


115 


burnings, now by one Christ-god tribe and now by 
another ; Biography, Travels, Lives of Great men (never 
heard of out of some Barbarian tribe) ; these are many, 
and read by the Literati. A few books, rarely read, 
devoted to Science and to Art, are printed, commonly 
to the ruin of the printers. 

Of romances and novels there are no ends. With 
these and the newspapers the English Barbarians almost 
entirely occupy themselves, when they do read. The 
novels pretend to portray life, in its usual vicissitudes 
and with a natural show of the feelings. But the feel- 
ing depicted is that of Love, and the Life, the life of 
a Lover. In this curious creature, unknown in our 
Central Kingdom, the English young people of both 
sexes delight. I cannot describe him; he has no ex- 
istence outside of a diseased brain. The great Shake- 
speare describes him, “ Sighing like a furnace, with a 
woful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow!” which 
will do as well as a more extended notice. 

There are Metaphysical works. We have no term to 
represent it. It is a book which dimly suggests phan- 
toms — things unseen, and not to be seen — mere words 
without bodies. Usually, making the matters of the 
common Worship still more inscrutable. 

Close to these, and blended often in a confused mix- 
ture with them — a compound defying all reasonable 
analysis — come the Philosophical. This term is a grand 
one with the Barbarians, and embraces all knowledge. 
The Philosophical writers pretend to the most exalted 
insight and outsight — they measure the whole infinite 
and finite, mind, matter, and the very nature of moral 


116 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 

and divine things. The Philosopher loves Wisdom, and 
Wisdom loves and teaches him ! 

Each philosopher, however, knowing everything, 
knows some things better than others; and usually ex- 
hibits to the world that eccentricity by which he is 
known. He parades this on all public occasions of the 
Literati ; and feels happy and serene mounted on his 
Hobby-horse (again we have nothing to fit this word) — he 
appropriates the name of the ridden Hobby. Thus, 
some time since, one of these discovered and taught 
that man was an Ape — an Ape of high form. This 
discovery was not very well received ; however, he was 
afterwards honoured by a title derived from his ancestor, 
and styled the Simian philosopher. In the old Eoman, 
Simia means Ape. He is vulgarly and better known, 
however, as the Hobby-horse philosopher, from his own 
name, Hobbs ! 

Just now, this speculation has revived again, with 
but slight change. One Darwin dreams of immortality 
from the usefulness of his theory. In this, man no 
doubt is found in the Simia , but he passes through that 
type; it is well enough to find there the immediate origin, 
but the true germ lies further back among the tadpoles ! 

I do not know what tadpoles are, and did not think it 
worth while to inquire. 

This philosophy, called Darwinian, is greatly admired 
for its profundity — especially by the select circle of 
Mutual Admiring Thinkers — but is strongly denounced 
by the Bonzes, and by the Halls of Learning and Lite- 
rati of the Superstition. It makes man no immortal 
being at all, these say ; and dethrones all the gods. 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 


117 


In our Flowery Land we may smile at these specu- 
lations and eccentricities — for such and similar vagaries 
are as old as Literature ; and the special notion of 
Darwin, as to the Origin of Species, has not even the 
attraction of novelty. The speculation of evolution, by 
which all visible forms are developed from a form less 
perfect below it, and this from another below that, and 
so on, down to the beginning, is a clumsy mode of 
stating that original forms were few, and contained 
wrapped up in them, many — and that possibly there 
may have been primarily only one, containing all ! The 
Sovereign Lord Himself ! In truth, it is the immemorial 
out of nothing idea ; for when a creator of worlds, in the 
shape of man, has got to a single form containing all, he 
has yet to account for that Single Form . 

The few, most advanced of the Barbarian Philosophers, 
eut adrift entirely from the Superstition. They copy 
largely from the Greeks, Piomans, and ancient peoples, 
who said, on such subjects, over and over again what 
these modern imitators say — and said it better. In 
Physics these moderns think themselves wiser. They 
may be, in the use of some things, but are not in the 
nature. Our Sect called Taos-se resemble these specu- 
lative writers in many things : the English may not 
directly teach the Metempsychosis ; but in effect it is 
the same. Evolution may hold to an original germ 
which is fixed and indestructible ; yet what matters if 
to the observer this germ takes on every possible shape! 
The Metempsychosis does not contradict the notion of 
an original germ — it is entirely consistent with it. This 
speculative inquiry into the nature of things is as old 


118 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH; 


as man, wlio, even before he knows liow to formulate 
his thoughts, has the deep shadows of them. The Old 
Greeks introduced the Literature of these fancies to the 
Western Barbarians, though themselves were no more 
than bright and beautiful dreamers of old dreams. The 
human intellect will always, as it has always, search 
into the unsearchable, applying to it whatever of sharp- 
ness, of imagination, of culture, it may have. There 
will be the inquiry, but never the answer. The mind 
itself finds its advantage ; nor could the Sovereign Lord 
have designed otherwise, else the intellect would not 
persist in a vain task. Nevertheless, wise men rest 
satisfied with the intuitions of the moral and intellectual 
nature. The origin and essence of the Sovereign Lord 
and of the visible world cannot be known. The source, 
the purpose, the end, and the nature of Things are 
beyond the scope of man. He may ask, and he may 
find delight in the asking ; for new ranges and glimpses 
of the infinite may flash upon him. But when he 
thinks he knows — that he has discovered — he is a fool ! 

Another department of what is called Philosophy 
deals with the mind, as the part just referred to more 
particularly affects to deal with matter. And 'writers 
upon the mind, when they speak of the moral function, 
call that by another name. Thus we have the Intel- 
lectual and Moral philosophers, with their many books. 
Very commonly this division is not sustained, and 
moral and merely mental evolutions run together. 
Indeed, there are those who deride this division, and 
assert that the moral has no real existence; that the 
mind itself is but matter instinct of life, and has no 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 


119 


existence independent of material organisms. They say 
that man is an animal endowed with Life , and that this 
occult and hidden force is indivisible. That divisions 
of the faculties may be convenient to give exactness to 
mental movements, but are otherwise fanciful. They 
deny a “ Moral faculty,’’ asserting that it is only a 
peculiar refinement of the lif e-instinct ; that the wish 
to do honestly is no more than this, and, educated to 
enlarged views, expands into all that man conceives of 
Justice. That you may just as easily train one to do 
dishonestly ; and then an honest act gives pain. This 
proves the very proposition denied — the faculty may be 
misinformed — the pain demonstrates the existence of 
the faculty. An animal has the Life-Instinct or mind, 
if you will ; but who imagines that the animal is ever 
pained by any remorse ! To this, these philosophers 
reply that the pain does not really exist only as the 
remains of a secondary instinct , remembering consciously 
or unconsciously the penalty awaiting disobedience. The 
animal, they say, may be so trained that it will feel this 
pain or shame ; and man, for ages disciplined, transmits 
to his offspring this secondary instinct of inherited fear ; 
and, here , is the so-called moral faculty. 

I may be pardoned in this tedious attempt to give 
the Flowery Kingdom some insight into the thoughts 
of the Barbarians on abstract matters, not for their 
novelty, but as a further illustration of that which is 
so well understood by our Literati — to say, the cease- 
less activity of the human mind and its tireless inquiry 
into the things of the mighty world. A beneficent fact 
or it would not be. Perverted by vain thinkers, who 


120 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 

do not think, because egotist ; yet in humble men, con- 
scious of ignorance, a solace. These reverence the 
Sovereign Lord, never comprehending other than His 
infinite Wisdom (and this by delightful flashes), nor 
His works, nor His methods, nor the use of Man, nor 
of any the smallest thing, nor the origin, nor the design ! 
Enough that He is, and that by some inscrutable, 
though certain sense, man, with a grateful joy bounds 
towards Him, claims to be His, and feels Immortal ! 

The Barbarian Literati have often rested upon the 
Greeks as final in Metaphysics. Plato, whom they call 
Divine, was very generally followed in 'his notion 
respecting the eternal and independent existence of 
spirit and matter. But the newer men insist upon one 
substance only, and remove the Sovereign Lord so far 
back into the deeps of an Unknown, that he vanishes, 
or becomes an unintelligent and unconscious Cause. 
Here again reproducing the Fate of remote antiquity. 

One school of Philosophers indulges in a curious 
form of materializing the mind. Pretending to fix all 
the mental and moral processes in the very substance 
of the brain, they declare that by a careful examina- 
tion of the head, the exact qualities of the individual 
may be discovered ! Some of these pretend to be 
teachers and Indicators — for fees, giving a precise 
chart to any one who wishes of the forces of the brain, 
so that he may order his affairs accordingly. 

They profess to tell parents in what art or business 
a child should be placed, and in what manner certain 
good qualities may be made to grow and bad ones to 
shrink ! They say that over each thinking part of the 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 121 

brain rises a corresponding bump [Ko-be], that these 
bumps contain : some-, thoughts of music, some of hate, 
some of love, some of numbers, some of place, and so 
on. They make charts showing these bumps and the 
thoughts which lie beneath them ! Tliese they sell, 
marking the bumps (after examination) to show the 
person what he is. If, for instance, his acquisitiveness 
(thoughts to take things) is a very large bump, he 
must develop a counteracting bump or he will as- 
suredly become a thief ! It is not quite clear how this 
development is to be brought about. Some carry this 
absurdity so far as to say that a man with bad bumps 
is not responsible — he ought rather to be regarded as 
an object to be cared for by the State, Before the 
bumps of the child be formed and hardened, any form 
may be given to them, by applying a gentle and con- 
tinuous pressure. Government, therefore, ought to have 
all children examined in youth, and apply to the heads 
the proper moulds ! In this way a perfectly moral 
-society would be assured ! 

I refer to this nonsense as the only novel speculation 
among the Western Barbarians. And any one can 
readily discover in this, old notions moulded into a 
defined and material shape, to give charlatans [Qu-ak-st] 
an opportunity to plunder. 

There are many books of the Moral Philosophers , 
who make a Science of certain movements of mind, and 
call it Ethical. But these books are to our habits 
useless or absurd — sometimes positively hurtful. The 
idolatries and superstitions colour and distort — distinc- 
tions are confounded, and a rational morality wanting. 


122 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 

A merely Jewish ordinance from the Sacred Writings 
is made as important as a plain moral precept. The 
human conscience is overloaded with arbitrary and 
unreasonable matters taken from the Superstition, and, 
bewildered, despairs of well-doing. To offend in some 
priestly dogma, is more terrible than to break an 
established law of honesty. Disobedience in the false 
demoralises the conscience as much as disobedience in 
the true, when both are received as true. 

In fact most of the moral books are merely *books 
written to uphold the great Superstition, and the 
morality is debased by its injurious connection. By 
what strange perversion could the cultivated mind ever 
be brought to announce a principle like this, to say ; 
“ Belief alone saves man from eternal Hell ; morality 
without it is only a snare of the Devil ” Belief means 
an undoubting acceptance of all the pretensions of the 
Superstition (as explained elsewhere). What must be 
the effect of teaching so false and presumptuous an 
enormity ? The Sovereign Lord will not deign to look 
with pity. He is a consuming tire ! Heart and hands 
pure — a life of disinterestedness — worship warm, grate- 
ful. Hothing worse. First, Believe — in the most 
monstrous thing which the diseased human imagination 
ever created — the Jew-Jah theology and worship ! 

When a system of morals is based upon such a pre- 
tension, it can only be hurtful ; unless, as is largely the 
fact, the healthy human instinct unconsciously rejects 
the error. Still, great harm is done — must be done. 
And how much of prevailing licentiousness and barba- 
rism may be placed to account of this false system can- 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 123 

not be defined. It is the immediate father of Atheism. 
Men reject the tremendous assumptions and believe 
nothing. But tender consciences, those in whom the 
divine faculty is large and clear, in general, directed by 
a true consciousness, simply disregard the horribly false 
things and attach themselves to the true. In this, 
vindicating the nobility of nature, which rises to its 
true recognition of the Sovereign Lord, in spite of sur- 
rounding errors. But, others, not so strong, delicate in 
conscience and feeble in mind, become the victims of 
this dreadful system. Thus it is also the father of 
Idolatry. For these victims, fearful of eternal destruc- 
tion, place themselves entirely in the hands of the 
Bonzes, and adore all the gods and observe all the rites. 
They cannot be sure, of themselves, that they do pro- 
perly Believe; a thing of a very mysterious nature, con- 
cerning which (as I have remarked) the contention is 
ceaseless. Nor can these victims of the Superstition, 
ardent devotees though they be, always obtain satisfac- 
tory evidence that their Salvation is sure. Then follow 
the self-imposed penances, and the sacrifices imposed 
by the Bonzes. They are victimised by the Bonzes in 
an endless variety of ways. Some build Temples ; some 
go about begging, in mean garbs, to get money for the 
poor Bonzes ; and the like ; much as we see among our 
superstitious devotees. Superstition merely reproduces 
its natural effects, varied according to the circumstances. 
Still there remain those poor creatures to whom no 
escape is possible. They struggle in vain with the dark 
doubts which envelop them. They believe in all the 
horrors of their worship ; that but a few are saved 


124 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 

from hell ; that goodness, charity, self-sacrifice, gifts to 
the Temples, to the poor, even to the Bonzes — nothing 
avails. Unless they have believed and been duly ac- 
cepted and enrolled among the Elect-few , they are 
merely children of the Devil, awaiting death, when they 
become his associate in Fires of the tormented , for ever 
and ever! These poor wretches feel already all the 
horrors of the damned. They find no solace in a moral 
life ; no peace in a grateful heart, turned to a benign, 
Heavenly Father. To yield to the natural emotions, to 
indulge in this peace, is vanity — is to be ensnared in 
the wiles of the enemy of Souls ! 

They catch sometimes feebly at a hope of Salvation, 
then fall again into a dreadful despair. At last the 
feeble mind gives way. They feel themselves already 
lost; they fancy they have committed the Sin which 
Jah himself will never pardon — (to use the words of 
the Sacred Writings ) — the sin against the Holy Ghost , 
for ever unpardonable — they writhe, they cry, they beat 
their breasts, they fall down in unspeakable agony — 
“ the pains of Hell have got hold of them ! ” This is 
again from the S acred books. The scene closes in death, 
or worse, in a mad-house; where in chains or under 
vigilant keepers (to prevent self-destruction or the de- 
struction of others), these wretches vanish from human 
hope and sympathy ! The frightful Superstition in these 
victims has been a reality ! And no human mind can 
bear that and live ! 

I will close these remarks upon the Literature of the 
English Barbarians, by giving some examples of the 
different poetic compositions. 


LITEEATUKE OF THE ENGLISH. 125 

From an Amatory poet, who refers to the conjugal 
endearments of the Eoman Jupiter and his goddess — 
Queen Juno, on Mount Ida, where, according to the old 
traditions of the Greeks, these gods often resorted : — 

“ When J uno makes the bed for Jove, 

And waits the god with blushing grace — 

Soft music charms the air above, 

And breathing fragrance fills the place. 

Mortals expect the deep repose ; 

Ocean is calm, the Winds are still, 

The heavenly rapture overflows, 

And Nature feels th’ ecstatic thrill.” 

I think our poorest poets could have improved upon 
“makes the bed.” In cold England, however, bed- 
making is important. And for a wife of the Upper 
Castes to make the bed for her Lord, with her own 
hands, is to show a great love and devotion. It is 
laughable to think of the goddess so domestically em- 
ployed, though the top of Mount Ida must be cold 
enough ! 

The poetry of the Idolatry has much of an amatory 
sort, very curiously mixed with its terrors. I give a 
rather refined specimen, quite free of the diabolie : — 

“ What grief, what darkness fills my breast, 

That coldly I have strayed from thee ! 

Thou art my Love, my Life, my Kest ; 

All other love doth fade and die. 

Oh, never may the joys of sense, 

Entice my ardent soul again ! 

Thou art my only sweet Defence — 

To love thee not is endless pain ! ” 


126 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 

From an unknown writer I extract the following, 
who refers to a great Sailor of the Western Barbarians. 
This man, repressing the revolts of his crew, with un- 
daunted mind, day after day, and night after night, for 
weeks and weeks, still kept on, steering westerly across 
the infinite, big seas. Possessed with one great and 
fixed idea — that Land lie beyond. At length, when all 
hope had nearly died, far away like a cloud, the great 
New World was discovered! We know of this in our 
Annals, in the dynasty Ming. 

“ To be — this marks the nobler man — this Force, 

This visioned soul, which sees the shadow cast 
Of a great Object in its every course, 

Urging it onward — common men will rest 

With common things ; such spirits are possessed 

By greater somethings, which will not be hushed 

With ‘ lullaby s ’ — which are within the breast 

Like inspirations — sleepless as the rush 

Of world-surrounding waves, and which no earth can crush ! ” 

This is a writer who takes the Sea as the scene of his 
poem. The style is affected ; but much liked. 

I add below an example of Blank Verse , a form greatly 
in use : — 

“ The Morn, exultant, on the mountain tops, 

Leads in the Day — and over all the World 
Delightful Joy spreads forth his glorious wings !” 

This appears to be a parody of Shakespeare, who says 
beautifully : — 

“ Oh, see where jocund Day stands tip-toe, 

On the distant, misty mountain tops !” 


LITER ATU11E OF THE ENGLISH. 127 

Very much of the poetry is obscured, and spoilt by the 
influence of the Superstition; and very much by arti- 
ficiality and affectations. And everywhere there are 
poor or indifferent imitators of the ancient Greeks and 
Romans ; upon whom the Literati mould their poetic 
conceits. 

Of the Comic and common it is well to read little. 
Coarseness and indecency seem inseparable from all 
vulgar humour. 

The Descriptive, tinged with the melancholy of the 
Superstition and Barbaric gloom, is often fine and 
smooth — sometimes tender and elegant. 

I give an extract from an author of no repute, but 
agreeable ; and the more so to me, because inoffensive. 
It is not defiled by the Idolatry of the Barbarians : — 

“ Spring-time of life, with open-eyed delight, 

Wondering at beautiful earth and sky ! 

Budding in sweet expectancy, and bright 
With smiles and charming grace, and blushingly 
Unconscious of a Love, jnst to be born — 

A trembling Joy, which smiles and tears adorn !” 

From the same, written in the open country ; which, 
though obscure sometimes, flows on finely, eloquently: — 

“ Stretched to the brilliant sky, on all sides clear, 

Are hills, and dales, and groves, and golden com— 

Whilst in the peerless air, all things are near ; 

And far or near they each and all adorn ! 

Here, let ns rest, on this fair, breezy hill, 

Beneath the shade of this high, spreading beech— 

And feel and see that we are Nature’s still : 

Her Peace and Beauty ever in our reach. 


128 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 


Her calm, majestic glory, harvest-crowned, 

Fills heaven and earth, and blends them into one. 

How vast and solemn bends the blue profound ; 

How sweet and strong th’ immortal gods move on ! 

Move on, resistless, yet, with tender grace — 

Inflexible, yet soft as summer rain — 

Intangible — as where yon shadows race, 

With nimble Zephyrs, o’er the waving grain ! 

Ineffable, though murmurs everywhere, 

Swell into Anthems of delightful tone ; 

And smiling hill-tops, and the radiant air, 

Rest in expressive Silence, all their own ! 

And there, by Avon’s stream, are Warwick’s towers ; 

And, here, is labour toiling in the fields : 

For Lord [Tchou] or serf alike, the patient hours 
Give back to Nature all which Nature yields. 

Still human hope aspires and will not die ; 

Will rear aloft its monumental walls ; 

Informed by Instinct builds as builds the bee — 

Mounting secure where stumbling Reason falls ! 

So Temples rise Immortelles of the race ; 

Where mouldering with the stones tradition clings — 
Touching the landscape with ennobling grace, 

And giving dignity to common things. 

• • • • mm 

The day declines, and so my holiday ; 

Care slumbering by my side awakes again ; 

Grasps on my hand and leads my steps away — 

So rudely rules the Martha of my brain ! ” 

The Martha is a scolding, busy house-wife [bro-msti], 
taken from an incident narrated in the Sacred Writings. 
The writer refers to Temples in a pleasing way, and 
to the “ mouldering stones,” where, about the dead, 
innumerable legends survive. Burials are near to the 
Temples, and the graves are on Holy ground. - His 


LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH* 


1.29 

reference is comprehensive — meaning the universal 
Hope of Immortality , symbolized by the lofty Fanes. 

I give below a few of the absurdities from the Comic , 
taken from a greatly esteemed author in this Line. 

“ Three wise men of Gotham 
Went to sea in a bowl [tou-se] ; 

If the bowl had been stronger, 

My tale had been longer ! ” 

The meaning of which is, I suppose, that when wise; 
men do foolish things they no more escape the con- 
sequences of folly than others. 

“ I bet yon a crown to a penny, 

And lay the money down, 

That I have the funniest horse of any 
In this or in any town. 

His tail is where his head should be — 

* You bet ! Well, come and see/ 

And sure enough, within his stall, 

The horse was turned — and that was all ! ” 

Another, very ridiculous : — 

“ There was a man of our town 
Who thought himself so wise, 

He jumped into a bramble bush, 

And scratched out both his eyes. 

But when he saw his eyes were out, 

With all his might and main 
He jumped into anotl/er bush, 

And scratched them in again ! ” 

This would seem to suggest that a conceited man, 
having committed an egregious blunder, rashly under- 
takes to remedy it by one equally unwise. The folly 
of conceited impulsiveness ! 


K 


130 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 

Another, and I have done. 

“Little Jack Horner 
Sat in a corner, 

Eating his Christmas pie; 

He put in his thumb, 

And pulled out a plum, 

Oh, what a good boy am I ! ” 

This is to encourage children with an idea that, if 
they he good , they shall have plums. It is very sig- 
nificant of the low culture. As if one were to imagine 
that the possession of a big plum (riches, or the like) 
demonstrated the moral excellency of the possessor ! 

Commentaries and parodies of these Comic trivialities 
liave|been written, and, forsooth, their beauties and 
meanings need exposition! 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 131 


CHAPTEE VI. 

OF TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

We have ourselves, in our maritime parts, some ex- 
perience of the English, as traders [Kie-tee]. Some- 
thing of their moral character is known, not as traders 
only, hut as representatives of the general civilization 
of their tribe. It will he a long period before the. 
events of the opium war are forgotten — when these 
selfish and cruel Barbarians came with their big fire- 
ships and great cannons, and massacred so many of our 
province, Quantung ! Nor will the slaughters of the 
people of our Central Kingdom, and the burnings and 
plunderings at the Illustrious seat of our Exalted, pass 
out of mind for many generations. Trade ! yes, Trade 
is the Moloch [Kan-ni-bli] of the English ; there is no- 
thing (of character) which they will not sacrifice to this 
Idol. The god by which they mostly swear, and whose 
name they apply to themselves, knew nothing of trade, 
and his words, as recorded in the S acred Writings , con- 
demn every practice customary in it. This inconsistency 
is always found in the devotees of irrational worship ; 
where formal observances stand for practical virtues. 
Perhaps dishonesty in trade is no more conspicuous, 
than immorality everywhere ; only traffic touching on 
all sides, and affecting nearly every interest, carries with 


132 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

it an almost universal debasement. Blind and con- 
ceited, it is tlie custom to speak of our Central Kingdom- 
contemptuously, and to brand our people as Heathen 
thieves [ta-ki]. We have thieves, and punish them. But 
how strangely to those of our people who know these 
Barbarians, this charge sounds ! It is notorious that 
the vile stuff packed up as Tea by our knaves is for the 
gain of English traders ; and that the horribly obscene 
pictures of degraded artists find a market with the Bar- 
barians ! We punish these plunderers when we detect 
them; but these Christians who would convert us en- 
courage this immorality ! 

The Law-making Houses are continually occupied 
(and occupied in vain) to find remedies for the almost 
universal crime of Adulteration [Kon-ti-fyt] of Food . 
Scarcely an article of food, or of drink, medicine, what 
not, escapes this dangerous cheat. To make a larger 
gain some cheap admixture, often poisonous and rarely 
harmless, is added to nearly every article. It is not 
easy to understand how general the moral debasement 
must be, when a thing of this sort, striking at once at 
health, and even life, is so common as to be scarcely con- 
temned ! To be cheated is a kind of comedy — one expects 
to be cheated — cheated in his clothes, his wine, his horses, 
his dogs, his meat, his drink, his beer, his sugar, his 
tea, his everything ! To have been honestly dealt with 
is a surprise — a thing to be remarked upon. To have 
been cheated — a shrug of the shoulder — an exclamation 
— “ Of course !” In fact, almost always the cause of a 
hearty laugh, especially if a sharp trick — or at another’s 
expense! The very laws of trade are based on dis- 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 133 

honesty ; and a people will not generally be better than 
their laws. 

The High-Caste affecting to despise trade, do, occa- 
sionally, in the Law-making Houses (as I have said), 
feebly interfere with the general rascality. Yet, they 
are so dependent, indirectly or directly, upon trade or 
its gains, that they will not do anything to hamper it ■; 
and any law which touches the utmost freedom of action 
in buying and selling , in their opinion, has this effect. 
On the whole, they say, better a few rogues flourish, and 
a few people be poisoned to death, than that commerce 
(an euphuism for rascally traffic) be injured. 

That man has a fine nature which traffic, in its best 
ways, cannot tarnish ; and laws should take their colour 
from the best — not the sordid. The old Eomans cul- 
tivated the land, and looked with contempt upon traffic. 
When riches and its corruptions lowered manliness, 
and Commerce spread through the provinces — still, the. 
Roman jurisprudence based itself upon equity — it did 
not place trade upon a pedestal above Justice ! They, 
made no such Barbarous mistake as to suppose that any 
business of a people could be more important to its 
prosperity, than the maintainance of right principle ! 

The English Barbarians say the interests of the public, 
require a disregard of right; and their famous legal 
maxim (in the Roman) is Caveat emptor — the buyer 
must take care — must sharply watch the seller. This 
is to say, “ The seller is to be expected to cheat ; and, if 
the buyer be cheated, let him thank his own stupidity!” 
The old Heathen Romans made no such immoral rule ; 
they required the most exact good faith upon both 


134 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

sides. The seller could not sell a horse blind of one 
eye, or incurably, though not always visibly, lame, and 
to the complaint of the buyer answer, “ Oh ! I gave no 
assurance of soundness.” 

The High-Caste, despising trade of any useful sort,, 
none the less delight in traffic of a high- caste colour. 
They deal in pictures, equipages, horses, jewels, sculp- 
tures, books, dogs, nick-nacks of all sorts ; know how to 
bargain, and understand the tricks, especially in horses, 
dogs, paintings, and the like, as well as those whom 
they affect to despise. 

The English are, doubtless, successful traders and 
plunderers. They are rough, and brave, and reckless ; 
and in traffic are as unscrupulous as in predatory ven- 
tures. Their conquests abroad have been incidental 
generally, commerce being the immediate object. But 
they have never scrupled to use force when it has 
seemed fittest. The plunder of a people has been found 
easier, and the returns quicker and larger, than the 
slower gains of traffic. 

Eor this shameful and cruel conduct, the English and 
other Western Barbarians find ample justification in 
their Superstition. Eor they believe that the peoples 
beyond the seas are Heathen, and under the ban of 
Jah. Their Sacred Writings so declare ; and that “ the 
Heathen are given to the Saints as a spoil, and their 
Lands as an Inheritance.” Now, these Barbarians 
affirm that they are the Saints; that the people who 
do not worship their gods are Heathen ; and that con- 
sequently they (these Barbarians) have a right to the 
possessions and lands of these distant and unoffending 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT*. 135 

tribes ! And not only this, that these tribes, under the 
wrath of Jah, and subjects of the Devil and hell, ought 
to be grateful for the inestimable boon of the Gospel 
( the Sacred Writings ), by which they may learn the way 
to be saved ; may, in fine, become Christians ! 

Thus it comes about that the intercourse of the 
Western Barbarians with peoples beyond the seas has 
been aggressive and piratical. From the earlier part 
of the dynasty Ming, when these Barbarous tribes first 
visited the great seas and distant regions in the far 
West and mighty East, the Pope (then worshipped by 
all the tribes) gave to two of them, very devoted to 
his worship and powerful in ships, the whole world 
of Heathen. This meant all the wide world but that 
small region in Europe wherein the Pope-worshippers 
lived. To the one tribe, called Portugals , he gave the 
whole immense East, and to the other, styled Spaniards, 
the vast regions in the West. Thus the two were 
possessed, by the gift of their god, of the whole Heathen 
world — India and our Flowery Kingdom being portions ! 

In their many ships, these two tribes, sailing East 
and West, landed upon the distant shores, and seized 
upon everything which they could. They thought it 
pleasing to Jah to put to death those who had offended 
him, and were already under his wrath and con- 
demnation : the Heathen were justly extirpated, unless 
they believed and worshipped Jah ! 

Hot very long after this gift to the two tribes, the 
English and Dutch, having quarrelled with the Ptomish 
Priests, refused to worship the Pope and denied his 
authority. The Dutch first, and then the English, 


136 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

growing more powerful in ships, made distant forays 
for plunder and trade ; and, following the tracks of the 
Portugals and Spaniards, disregarded their pretended 
exclusive title to the Heathen. They determined to 
have a portion of this general transfer of the world 
to Christians; they were in their own judgment the 
better, the Reformed Christians, and far better entitled ! 

Since this enormous Blasphemy [Swa-tze] of the 
Pope, History, as known to the Barbarians, has been, 
to a large extent, an account of its consequences. Wars 
between the contending Christians for the distant pos- 
sessions, and savage and cruel depopulation, plunder, 
and subjugation of the unoffending inhabitants. Whole 
races of men have melted away in the presence of 
these Christ-god worshippers; and the horrors of the 
dreadful Superstition, which in the regions of Europe 
had made man more like the Devil of his Idolatry than 
anything human, spread, with fire and sword, over the 
wide world! In the far West, beneath the setting sun, 
a beautiful and peaceful people, rich and numerous, 
suffered cruelties too shocking to tell ; and in the 
civilised and populous East, the very name of Christian 
became a synonym of all that is detestable. 

Hone the less, the English Barbarians, to this day, 
acting upon these Christ-god pretensions, will insist 
that this Trade and Plunder is the handmaid of En- 
lightenment, the chief agent in the preparing of the 
World for a knowledge of the true gods, and the 
ultimate salvation of the Heathen! 

Trade is, therefore, a civilising agency and a powerful 
helper in the redemption of mankind from the awful 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 137 

Hell. A few poor Missionaries are sometimes added 
to the general cargo of means of conversion. The same 
ship which transports these Bonzes to convert the 
benighted 'pagans will, perhaps, have a few volumes of 
the Sacred Writings, some had rum, worse muskets 
(more dangerous to him who shoots than to him to 
whom the shot is directed), gunpowder, flimsy articles 
too poor for home trade; to these, add the licentious 
and degraded sailors; and one sees how well the 
English Barbarians work to introduce their true worship 
and save the Heathen ! But this is feeble : only a 
trade-ship. The great fire-ships, with big cannons, full 
of armed and fierce barbarians, which devastate the 
populous coasts, and burn and plunder the maritime 
parts — these are illustrious workers in the spread of the 
Christ-god Salvation and a lofty Civilization! Thus 
the very worship of the Barbarians has helped, by its 
cruel pretensions, to ingrain a wrong notion' — one 
making them immoral and cruel. Taking the Jah of 
the old, huckstering Jews, as an object of idolatry, the 
whole people has, in trade, become Jewish , as in much 
else. 

I have referred to petty cheating, and to that whole- 
sale criminality of adulteration. But fraud is very 
common, and often on an enormous scale. Nor is there 
any remedy. In truth, it is so common, that, as all 
hope to have a turn at its advantage, none care to 
punish heavily him, who, by chance, has been too bold. 
The fraud must take the form of open robbery, or be 
of such grossness as to be hardly disguised, before the 
wrong-doer will be arrested. A man may enjoy un- 


138 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

molested, and even with respect, a great fortune acquired 
by notorious trickery. 

So universal is this toleration of roguery, that the 
Plays and Pastimes are often enlivened by comical 
illustrations of the various arts, tricks, and deceptions 
practised. The charlatans, rogues, cheats, and the like, 
are shown in the Lawyer, the Doctor, the Bonze (low- 
caste), and other professions and occupations. Endless 
are the villanies of the Lawyer — the quack pretensions 
and impositions of the Medical man — the cant, hypocrisy 
and meanness of the Bonze. 

Among the professions and trades, the teacher is a 
brutal ignoramus , who heats and starves the wretched 
children under his care ; the nurse quietly drinks her- 
self drunk and goes to sleep, leaving the sick man to 
gasp and die for the drink close at hand, hut which he 
cannot reach; the milkman stops at the pump, and 
fills up his milk-cans with water; the teaman show’s 
and sells you one sort, hut delivers a very different; 
the grocer says his prayers, hurries to his goods, asks 
his servant if “ the sugar be sanded,” “ the rum watered,” 
“ the tobacco wet down,” “ the teas mixed,” “ the small 
bottles filled,” and the like ; the tailor sells you more 
cloth than he knows will be required for your garments, 
and cabbages the excess ; the cabman who knows you 
are a stranger demands quadruple fare ; the innkeeper 
gives you the meanest room, and charges you the price 
for the best ; and so on through every business of life. 

The learned professions take the lead in this exhibi- 
tion of roguery and immorality. The spectators never 
tire of these displays of the general rascality. The 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 139 

roguish landlord, the villanous horse-dealer, the artful, 
knavish servant, the Priest of Low Caste, and the 
Doctor, afford the most common diversion. The Lawyer 
is generally diabolic , the Bonze a hypocrite and knave, 
the medical man an impostor and dealer in medicines 
of infallible healing power. 

Much of this may be referred to the love of coarse 
humour — but its real base is to be found in the degrada- 
tion of morals. These representations are types, and 
would only produce disgust, were not the rascalities 
represented familiar. The excesses and exaggerations 
are of the Play — but the types are normal and common. 

One great trading place is called the Stock Exchange 
— another, perhaps more important, styled the Merchants’ 
Exchange. These places are established in every large 
town, and the business done in them absorbs the atten- 
tion of traders and people who have any property, 
throughout the Kingdom. 

The dealings [Keet-sees] of the former relate to 
Certificates and Bonds. These are Pieces of Printed and 
Coloured Paper , which represent in the words and figures 
a sum of money invested in a trading concern, or a sum 
of money which somebody owes and promises to pay. 
The sum may be quite a fiction, and is usually either 
never to be really paid, or paid at some very remote 
day. However, a small sum is promised to be paid 
every six moons, or in twelve moons — this is for not 
paying the big sum. 

The business of the latter relates to the buying and 
selling of every sort of merchandise, whether on land, 
or on vessels at sea. 


140 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

Other great trading places deal in money, or rather 
in hits of Printed Paper , which promise to pay money 
to him who has one of these bits. These places get 
people to sell them these bits at a price, and then resell 
at a greater price — or they borrow and lend these bits, 
paying less for the use than they obtain. Very little 
money is seen — business is in Paper — another of the 
ingenious tricks of these trading and gambling Bar- 
barians, perhaps the source of more dishonesty and 
cheating than almost any other. As the like has no 
existence in our Flowery Land, it will not easily be 
comprehended. 

The chief of these places for dealing in this money- 
paper is called the Bank. The Government shares in 
the advantages of this invention. Its object is to bank 
up, or hoard, all the real money (gold and silver) which 
it can get in exchange for the bits of paper. These 
promise that the .Bank will always return the sum of 
gold which the bit acknowledges to have been received. 
The man hands the Bank his gold-money to be kept 
safely till he wishes for it, and the Bank gives him the 
bit of Paper (which is numbered and recorded in a 
book). He can carry this ’in his pocket, but the gold- 
money would be too burdensome and more easily lost. 
The Government pledges also that the gold shall always 
•be safely kept, to be returned whenever the bits of 
paper are returned. This Bank-house is immensely 
strong and large, built of hewn stone, and is guarded by 
men armed with swords and fire-arms for fear of the 
savage and ignorant Low-Castes. 

Ordinarily, only now and again, a few persons go to 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 141 

the Bank and wish the gold ; because if one wishes it, 
some one of whom he buys, or to whom he owes, will 
take the money-paper and hand him the difference — 
consequently, the paper goes from hand to hand for a 
long time. Everybody takes it because it is convenient, 
and because he thinks the gold attached to it is 
safe in the Government Bank-house. The confidence 
in Paper is called Credit. To which I shall more 
fully refer. 

Sometimes, when a great many demand the gold, it 
is suddenly found that the Bank-house has it not ! The 
promise of banking up the gold till wanted in exchange 
for the Paper has been broken. Down goes Credit — 
every kind of value shrinks at once ; for the Bank has 
not the real money, and values have been measured by 
the paper ! 

The traders and everybody connected with them 
have incurred debts — that is, made paper promises to 
pay, like those of the Bank, for property valued 071 the 
Bank-paper. It is found that this Bank-paper is too 
much by one-half — the property has been over-valued 
in proportion. Still the debtors are required to pay the 
amount of their paper promises ! 

It is impossible — ruin and Bankruptcy ensue — the 
whole trading world is convulsed, and tens of thousands 
are beggared ! 

The explanation is that the Bank is allowed by the 
Government (in consideration of certain advantages to 
itself) to lend out the gold for usury — that is, it lends a 
thousand pounds of gold to be returned in three moons, 
for which use the borrower pays twelve or twenty 


142 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

pounds ! It makes its gains by thus using the gold 
•which it has promised safely to keep. It is permitted 
to do this, because the risk of having much gold de- 
manded at once is small, and from experience the 
Bank has discovered that if one-third part of its paper'- 
promises of gold is in hand, it will be in little risk of 
having more demanded ! Backed by the Government, 
it deliberately, for the sake of gain, runs the risk of 
being a cheat and robber ! 

Then follows a curious contrivance of these dishonest 
Barbarians. To save its own moneys and advantages 
in the Bank, and to save loss or ruin to the owners of 
the establishment, who are very powerful and numerous, 
composed of members of the High Castes as well as 
others — in fact, to save the general wreck of the sham 
paper-money ( Credit ) upon which values are falsely 
based, the Government issues a Law, forcing everybody 
to receive from the Bank its paper precisely as if it 
were gold ! 

Thus, having assisted in one fraud, it resorts to 
another, to remedy in some measure the evils of the first 
— extending and perpetuating the evil, which a wise 
man would remove ! 

Another remarkable thing is the organised Betting. 
The Houses where this is done are splendid, and the 
many people supported in them and by the gains, live 
luxuriously, and are greatly respected. The gains are, 
in small measure, also shared by those who put in 
money from which bets may be paid, when the House 
loses the bet. 

The betting may be about anything. But the chief 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 143 

Houses are those where the bets have reference to 
length of life or injuries, to loss by fire, to loss by 
sea, and losses by fraud. If a man wish to bet that he 
will live say seventy moons, he pays down at once a 
small sum, and the House accepts the bet — that is, 
gives him a writing , promising to pay his heirs a very 
much larger sum if he die before the seventy moons 
expire. If a man have goods in a shop , he bets, say, 
one pound to 100 pounds, that they will not be burned 
during twelve moons — he pays down the pound and re- 
ceives a writing (as before) that if the goods be burned 
during the time, he shall be paid the 100 pounds. 
So on, as to bets upon goods and upon vessels on the 
seas, upon buildings of all kinds, upon duration of life, 
and upon the life of another, upon accidents to body, 
upon honesty of servants — upon almost anything where 
the thing bet by the Houses is remote in time. This 
is the great point ; for these never pay anything down 
by way of stakes , but always receive in money the stake 
(bet) of the other party. 

One may readily see how corrupting all this is in its 
nature, and how falsely conceived. The rascally trader 
burns the goods, the possessor of a building burns that, 
the owner of a ship has her wrecked, to get the sums 
promised upon these events ; and trade is promoted 
upon unsound practices. Even life has been taken by 
a wretched gambler, who has staked money upon the 
life of another. The tendency is to these crimes. Nor 
can there be anything but loss to the public at large ; for 
these expensive Houses and their numerous and richly- 
living inhabitants are supported by the winnings made, 


144 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

without rendering any useful service. This must be 
true, even when all bets made by these Houses are 
'paid. But another great mischief follows : they do 
not pay, and are often only Swindles [Kea-ties] on a 
great scale ! There are those which pay — that is, have 
so far paid — but as there are bets for enormous amounts 
far in the future , no one can say that final payments 
are certain. The great object of all the Houses is to 
secure as large sums in cash as possible upon events a 
long way off. The more remote the event upon which 
the bet is laid, the larger the sum demanded from the 
individual who bets. He pays — the House merely 
promises to pay, and cannot be called upon to pay for a 
very long time ! In this way, great sums of money 
having been got (some bets having been promptly paid 
to obtain confidence), the House shuts its doors ! The 
rogues share the plunder and decamp. Decamp is to 
run away to distant parts to escape arrest and punish- 
ment. This is, however, rarely necessary ; for such are 
the cunning contrivances of the Lawyers, who organise 
these Betting Houses, that very little risk is run — forms 
of law, slack enough at best, have been so well adhered 
to, that the rascals escape, though everybody knows 
that they have used those forms as a cover to more 
effectually defraud, and then as a shield to more effec- 
tually protect ! These things are unknown in our 
Central Kingdom, and are only possible to a demoralised { 
people. 

The dealing at the Stock Exchange is mainly only , 
another form of betting. It is hard of comprehension, 
unless by the Initiated. It is a distinct trade. Those 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 145 

who deal constitute a secret and exclusive betting Ring , 
or community. If by chance, when the doors are open, 
a stranger inadvertently enters, he is greeted with 
caterwaulings, howlings, “ Turn-him-outs,” and the like. 
“Smash his hat!” some one cries; and suddenly the 
stiff head-covering is violently driven down, completely 
over the face and ears, tearing the skin off the nose, 
and reducing the thoughtless and astonished stranger 
to a state of ridiculous helplessness ! 

Betting is a passion with the English Barbarians. 
The women, the children, the servants — everybody bets 
about any and every thing. Horse races, boat races, 
swimming races, all sorts of games and sports, attended 
by both sexes, afford endless occasions for the indulgence 
of it. Yet, after all, extensive, ruinous, and debasing 
as are the evils of it in these sports and games, the 
mischief is vastly greater in the Marts of traffic — in 
the Stock and Merchants’ Exchanges. 

In these, the dealings are, as I have said, either as to 
pieces of paper representing values, or as to merchandise 
in hand or at sea ; and, I may add, as to pieces of paper , 
representing this merchandise, called Warrants and Bills 
of Lading. 

The betting in the Stock Exchange concerns itself 
with the Paper of the former class, and the betting of 
the Merchants’ Exchange with the Paper of the second 
kind. All this grows directly out of the Bank paper 
and the Credit system , before mentioned. 

All values are founded upon these nominal promises 
to pay. But the promises themselves are ever under- 
going changes, according to the varying circumstances. 

L 


14G TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

The promise to-day looks well — it is estimated at so 
much; to-morrow it does not look so well — and it is 
estimated at less worth. Besides, all the gold and 
silver in the world could not pay a twentieth part of 
these promises. Thus the fluctuations are incessant. 
The betting at the Stock Exchange has reference to 
these fluctuations. One of the letters is interested to 
have a rise, another to have a fall, of value. One agrees 
• to deliver at a future day, at a certain price ; all are 
interested to bring about a change either one way or 
another. The man who desires a rise may not be 
scrupulous as to any means which may produce the 
rise; and he who wishes a fall of price will eagerly 
second anything which will have that effect. Consider 
the consequences upon the honesty and good faith of 
those who engage in this betting ! 

The Merchants’ Exchange is not so devoted to absolute 
betting ; yet its largest business partakes of that vice. 
One buys a cargo at sea; another agrees to deliver a 
cargo three months hence. One sells what he has not, 
for a future delivery. Another buys what he never 
intends to receive, deliverable to him in the future. 
hfo money is paid, nor received. The buyers and sellers 
are merely gambling — betting (as in the Stock Exchange) 
upon the rise or fall of prices ! And are interested — 
the one to advance the price, and the other to lower the 
price, of the thing dealt in ! 

Consider the temptation to unfair practices, the in- 
evitable tricks, false rumours, lies, and deviations from 
honourable conduct involved in such transactions ! 
Eeflect upon the consequences to the honest trader, 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 147 

who is. in his very honesty, all the more easily tricked 
by the unscrupulous ! 

The stronghold of these various gambling Establish- 
ments, and the grand feature, in fact, of the English 
business life, is Credit — to which I will devote some 
space. We have nothing like it, nor had the ancient 
Barbarians of the West. It is, perhaps, the most dis- 
tinguishing thing in the Barbarian life. 

As already hinted, Credit means that a Promise shall 
stand for performance. 

It had its rise among the Barbarian tribes, not very 
long since, and grew out of their incessant wars. Par- 
ticularly the English, finding they could not pay the 
armed bands, contrived to get the gold out of the 
hands of the people in exchange for the Bank-paper, 
and then, forcing the people to still accept the paper for 
gold, issued paper to such an amount as Government 
needed ! From that period the people, especially the 
trading classes, making directly or indirectly nearly the 
whole, found an advantage in resorting to the same 
fiction — and the Government could do no other than 
give to the trader, who could not pay his promise, the same 
relief which it took for itself — for the Bank. It allowed 
him to pay what he could, and go on as before ! No 
matter that he paid only one-third part — unless he had 
been guilty of some extreme roguery, he received a dis- 
charge from all his promises, and could begin to make 
new ones and go on in trade as before ! 

In this way, the Barbarian community is one wherein 
a false principle corrupts all. Boldness, recklessness, 
cunning, to say nothing of positive criminality, are en- 


148 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 

couraged ; honour, delicacy, simple integrity, are driven 
into obscurity. Let him who would preserve his con- 
science smooth and clear, a mirror whence divinity be 
reflected, shun all the marts and ways of trade ! 

The Revenues of the Government are derived largely 
from the dealers in the great Marts , and it is imme- 
diately interested in the upholding of the Credit of the 
innumerable paper-promises of all kinds made by these 
and by the Betting Houses. It is, in fact, the chief 
supporter of the whole sham — it cannot be otherwise, 
for the English Sjbate. rests upon it. The promises of 
the Government to pay gold can never be kept, and it 
forces an acceptance of a mere fraction , from time to 
time, as a sicMcient redemption of its promises made 
generations ago ! 

Other sums are derived from taxes upon the tea r 
sugar, and other things largely consumed by the lower 
castes ; whilst rich silks, laces, and costly things used 
by the High-Castes are not taxed. But then the taxes 
are levied by the Higli-Castes ! 

A great revenue is collected from the excise, a tax 
upon the beer, drank in enormous quantities by the 
lowest Caste. To stimulate the consumption of this 
article and increase the revenue, Beer-shops are to be 
seen on every hand, and the drinkers everywhere. 
Drunkenness, wretchedness, riot, disorder — these flourish 
as the Beer-shops increase ; these are the associates of 
those places ! Yet in vain do good Englishmen try to 
remove these evil dens . What are the efforts of these 
few in the midst of a general debasement— a debasement 
which takes, without shame, a share in a traffic so vile ! 


TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 149 

I have spoken freely of the dishonesty of the Bar- 
barian trade and business — a dishonesty to be expected 
when one broadly, views the whole ground of their 
Society. Still, natural equity and its instinct , especially 
when the mind is more or less cultured, will always 
prevent absolute dissolution — thieving and roguery will 
be restrained in tolerable bounds. A man of genuine 
integrity finds traffic no good moralist in the best of 
circumstances. He needs the support of the State, or 
he will fight an unequal battle, and be forced by dis- 
honesty to retire. The Barbarians are not yet suffi- 
ciently enlightened to raise the measure of honesty. 
The Government and the people are one in this. They 
do not perceive that the evils under which their in- 
dustry, their peaceful pursuits, and all their interests 
suffer, are those inseparable from a bad superstition and 
false principles — these extend everywhere and into 
everything. Misleading in Statesmanship [Lan-ta-soa] , 
in dealings with distant peoples, in due ordering and 
educating the people at home — stimulating wild specu- 
lation and extended confidence (credit) at one time, 
only to be followed by disastrous collapse, excessive 
distrust, and wretchedness, soon after ! Giving, in fine, 
to Barbarian society that aspect of restlessness, that 
apparent but often vicious activity, that indescribable 
hurry and confusion, that unhealthy excitement, unknown 
to an orderly and industrious people, whose order and 
industry are grounded upon the simple and direct rules 
of reason and truth. 


150 


REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, 


CHAPTER VII. 

SOME REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 

[hi-dy]. 

In our Flowery Kingdom when a man marries he pays- 
to the parents or relatives ; hut Avith the Barbarians 
the woman pays to the man. Women are such costly 
burdens that men demand some compensation for 
undertaking to keep them ; and the relatives of women 
are glad to get them off their hands at any price. 

There are in England four great Castes, which con- 
tain the whole population. The habits of the Castes 
differ, though you will observe certain characteristic 
features common to all. In order to understand more 
clearly the remarks which follow, it will he convenient 
to speak of the division of Castes. 

The first — High-Caste. Those who do nothing useful 
and pass their time in mere self-indulgence. 

The second — High-second Caste. Those who do but 
very little, and come as nearly as possible to the selfish 
existence of the first. 

The third — High-low. Those who are obliged to 
work more or less, but are ever longing to attain to 
theidle s elfishness of those above them. 

The fourth — Lowest Caste (Villeins). Labourers, not 
long since serfs, and still so in effect. 


BIRTIIS, AND BURIALS. 


151 


The fourth Caste is so low doivn as to be usually 
disregarded altogether, in any account of the people, 
though included in the count taken of the population by 
Government. They may amount to nearly a half of the 
whole. They are rarely styled people at all. They are 
designated by many contemptuous names, of which the 
more common are my man, navvy, clown, clod-liopper, 
parish-poor ; boor, rough, brute, and beast are frequent, 
especially when any of the despised Caste slouch too 
near, or happen to touch a Higher Caste. 

When a man of the higher orders thinks to take a 
wife, he sees to it that she will bring him money 
enough to compensate the cost. He dislikes to part 
with his easy freedom and yoke to himself a being as 
selfish, frivolous, and useless as himself. 

He may be broken in fortune and notorious for im- 
moralities, yet, connected to the Aristocracy ,|he knows 
that he may demand a large sum if he will take for 
wife a woman a little lower in family than himself. 
She must be of High- Caste, but not of the highest. 

The woman's relatives say, “Well, he is fast; but 
marriage will settle him. His father, you know, is 
second son to the Earl of Nolands, and his mother was 
a sixth cousin to the Duke of Albania, who has royal 
blood in his veins. I think we may make a large 
allowance for such a desirable match.” It does not 
occur to the speaker, at the moment, that the royal 
blood coursed through very impure channels in the 
case cited. 

It is an object eagerly sought by low rich to buy for 
their daughters a High-Caste husband; and men of 


152 


REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, 


this kind, ruined by gambling, loaded with debt, often 
degraded by vice, deliberately calculate upon this 
ambition to repair their fortunes, and get comfortable 
establishments. 

The marriage ceremonies do not differ very much 
from ours, in some things; but it is very different 
before the ceremony. With us, the woman is unknown 
to the man ; but with the English, the man has every 
opportunity of seeing her, and knowing her very well 
indeed. Our notions could not admit of this, but it 
has a convenience ; it would prevent the disappoint- 
ment occasionally arising, when, on opening the door 
of the chair, our new husband finds a very ugly duck 
instead of a fine bird, and hastily slams the door in the 
poor thing’s face, and hurries her back to her relatives 
as a bad bargain! However, this advantage to the 
English husband is not so great as it seems ; for the 
woman is too cunning to discover much till she has 
secured her game. Unless, therefore, the man be a 
very cool and practised lover [mu-nse], he is likely to 
be rather astonished when he sees his bride — and he 
cannot slam the door against her! 

The Bonzes, generally, perform the ceremony before 
the Idol in the Temple. It is deemed to be important 
to have the marriage invocations pronounced. These 
are barbarous in the extreme; most indelicately alluding 
to those things which decorum hides, and calling the 
gods to aid the conjugal embrace — no wonder that the 
bride wears a veil ! 

The great bells ring in the lofty towers, the loud 
music strikes up, and the marriage procession enters 


BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 


153 


tlie Temple ; and any one may follow who pleases, so 
he he well dressed. In the great towns, the beggarly 
rabble — chiefly children and half-grown youths of both 
sexes, with old women and men — crowd about the 
Temple gates, but dare not enter. When the corUge 
leaves, this rabble clusters round the wheels of the 
carriages, turning over and over upon hands and feet, 
standing on head and hands, rolling and crying out, in 
the dust or mud of the street, begging for pennies (a small 
English coin). When these are thrown amongst them, 
they ridiculously scramble and tumble over each other, 
seeking amid the dirt for the coins, like so many 
carrion-birds upon garbage. 

Arrived at the home of the Bride, a great feast is 
eaten, with wine and strong drinks. All make merry ; 
whether because it is so desirable to be rid of a female, 
or because of the liking which the Barbarians have for 
eating and drink, I know not. The feasting over, all 
take leave of the new pair, the bride being addressed 
by the title of her husband. The Bride is kissed, the 
husband shaken [qui-ke] by the right hand, and good 
wishes given. On leaving the portal for the carriage, 
old shoes [ko-blse] and handfuls of rice are thrown 
after them; the rabble roosting about the areas and 
railings rush pell-mell after the old shoes, begin their 
tumblings about the street, and howl for more pennies. 
The rice-throwing is no doubt Eastern in origin, and 
has an obvious meaning ; the old shoes refer to some- 
thing in the Superstition — probably to appease the evil 
imps, who delight in mischief and are amused by the 
absurd squabbles of the beggars. 


154 


REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, 


The Honey-moon begins at the moment when the pair 
enter the carriage and the old shoes are thrown after 
them. The horses start, and the newly-married are 
whirled away into the deeps of an Unknown ! You 
may, perhaps, catch a glimpse of the bride, wistfully 
stretching her neck and turning her eyes, dimned with 
tears, to the door-steps where stand those with whom 
she has lived — and whom she now, it may be, suddenly 
finds are very dear to her ! But the husband has 
grasped the waist of his new possession, and is absorbed 
in that. He has before been the owner of horses, dogs, 
and the like, which have worn his collar — this is another 
and very different bit of flesh and blood ; none the less, 
however, branded as his own exclusive possession, and 
ever after to bear his name ! He understands so well 
the mere fiction of this ownership, that he is by no 
means sure that after all he have not made a had bargain 
— it may prove too costly, and be by no means either 
useful or obedient ! However, with his arm about his 
wife, just now he hardly realises these doubts, but feels, 
or tries to feel, ecstatic — as he ought. 

The Honey-moon thus begun, ends exactly with one 
moon. It is a received ' opinion that the Incantations 
at the rite exorcise the Evil One for the period abso- 
lutely, though he may (as the Barbarians express it) 
“ play the very Devil ” with them afterwards ! 

I was told that the Honey-moon was so called 
because, during the Moon, the new couple fed wholly 
on honey and drank weak tea ! There is some mystery 
attached to it, for my questions were always answered 
with a doubtful look. I had no opportunity of abso- 


BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 


155 


lutely solving it — though my observation led me to 
judge that the honey diet did not agree with people — 
in truth, I wonder at its use. I have seen a bride after 
her return, thin, pale, peevish, who had left round and 
rosy ; a bridegroom before the moon jolly [Qui-ky] 
and devoted to his bride, return taciturn, careless, for- 
getful to pick up a fan, or to place a chair for his wife, 
and even (on the sly) kick the very poodle which he 
before-time caressed! and when the wife ‘pouting has 
said, “ Out again , George ,” he has replied, lighting a 
cigar, “ Yas, I must meet the fellahs , you know ! ” 

The best hint on this subject which I ever got was 
from a married Englishmen, who to’ my query said, 
“ All-Chin, my dear fellah, call Honey-moon Matri- 
monial Discovery , and think about it, ha ! ” 

As the honey-eating and tea-drinking are to go on, 
whilst the new couple are quite retired by themselves, 
away from their friends and all usual pastimes and oc- 
cupations, necessarily they have only each other to look 
at with attention. The honey-eating is trying enough, 
and needs, one would think, all the relief of gaiety and 
occupation possible ! But no, it is only to eat and to 
closely watch each other ! 

I wonder no more at the changes which I observed. 
Nor do I wonder at the improved appearance of the 
couple when, after a few weeks of rational life in usual 
pursuits, something like the health and cheerfulness of 
old returned ! 

Yet I was informed that very many couples never 
recover from the Honey-moon (as my informant had it, 
Matrimonial Discovery), but from bad grew worse, 


156 


REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, 


soured and sickened entirely, could not, at length, 
endure each other, separated by consent, or sought the 
Divorce Court ! 

The thing, therefore, seems characteristic of the coarse 
humour of the Barbarians, who appear to find a 
comedy in an absurd, irrational trial of respect and 
affection, dangerously near the tragic at best, and often 
absolutely so ! Absurd and irrational after marriage 
— one can conjecture its use before ! However, it is 
quite of a piece with the general disorder, and want of 
knowledge and practice of sound principles. 

When a child is born, the event is duly announced 
in the public Gazette , and relatives send compliments. 
When the infant is about eight days old, it is taken to 
a Temple to be baptised and christened. It is a sin- 
gular rite , and one of the most astonishing in the Super- 
stition. The Bonze who officiates before the Idol, takes 
the little thing upon his arm and sprinkles some water 
upon its face. At the moment he does this, he makes 
a curious Invocation to all the three-gods-in-one of the 
Worship, and pronounces aloud the Christian name of 
the babe, by which it shall ever after be known. This 
is called Christening , that is, making a Christian of the 
infant. The ceremony, it is believed, exorcises the Evil 
One, and makes it very difficult for him to get hold of 
the baptised (no matter how diabolically he may act) 
in after life — the water, duly made holy by the Priest, is 
a barrier over which Satan, with all his wiles, shall find 
it well-nigh impossible ever to get — some Bonzes say 
it is absolutely impossible ! 

Women, as soon as strong enough to attend the 


BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 


157 


Temples, are churched (we have no term of the kind), a 
rite much like an ordinary thanks offering, for the happy 
deliverance and new birth. The Bonze makes Invoca- 
tions, and refers to the various superstitions and bar- 
barous pretensions of the Worship, devotion to which 
is inculcated under fearful penalties. However, on all 
occasions in the Temples, these dreadful intimations of 
Hell and the Devil are most frequent ! 

When a death occurs, it is also announced in the 
public Gazette , with honours and titles ; and, if a High- 
Caste, with a long notice of the chief events of his life, 
and loud praises of his valour, as where he led, in his 
youth, a band of fierce Barbarians like himself to the 
plunder and burning of some distant tribe ! His 
virtues are also proclaimed — to the astonishment of all 
who knew him ! 

The tombs of the High-Castes are something like 
those of our Literati — though, instead of being in the 
country amid the pleasing scenes of Nature, they are 
generally in the holy grounds of the Temples, and even 
within the Temples themselves — for the superstitious 
Barbarians think that, even after death, the body is 
safer from the Devil there than elsewhere ! But the 
common people lie hideously huddled together, without 
distinguishing marks (or with so slight as to be quickly 
obliterated), and are soon totally neglected and forgotten 
—happy, indeed, if their despised dust may mingle with 
holy earth within the precincts of Temples. 

The Bonzes pray and sing the usual invocations and 
prayers over the body of the dead, before it is placed 
in the tomb — but there is no real respect for the dead — 


158 REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, 

it is not to be looked for in the rough, barbaric nature. 
In our Floiccry Kingdom regard for the dead, respect for 
their memory, tombs carefully preserved amid the quiet 
groves of the country, tablets and busts set up in the 
Halls of Ancestors — these are ordinary things. With 
the English, in general, the dead is a hideous object 
turned over to the undertaker and his minions to be 
buried out of sight, as soon as decency allows ! With 
us, the poorest will have the coffin ready, prepared, and 
carefully honoured and cared for. With the English, 
the thought of one is repulsive, and he looks upon it 
with loathing ! No doubt the horrid superstition has 
much to do with this feeling. 

The undertakers (a hateful crew) drape everything in 
black. They take possession of everything, and turn 
the whole house into a charnel. They place the 
defunct (as the Barbarians, with a kind of contempt, 
call the dead) in a black vehicle, drawn by blade 
horses, and draped with black cloth — black feathers and 
scarfs, hideously Haunted, with men clothed in black, 
attend — the dismal Hearse, with its wretched accom- 
paniments, disappears — but only to disgorge the body. 
Soon after these Vultures may be seen returning, seated 
upon the Hearse, clustering there, like carrion birds, 
who have gorged themselves ! When they have feasted 
and drunk at the House of Woe (woe, indeed, whilst 
defiled by them), and generally spent as much money 
as is possible — they, at last, disappear — and the family 
breathe again ! 

An English Barbarian once told me that these 
creatures, in tricks of plunder and cheating, surpass the 


BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 


159 


Lawyers ; in truth, the fashion is to show respect to 
the dead by a lavish expenditure in black draperies , and 
is almost wholly confined to that. It is an object to 
speak of the cost as a measure of that respect! The 
whole thing being a sham, though a most disagreeable 
one, the Undertaker sees well enough that he might as 
well pocket a large sum as a small one. A certain sum 
is to be spent, for respect, not for any tangible thing. 
The Undertaker takes care to furnish more respect than 
anything more tangible — and to charge for it ! In fact, 
the mode of plunder is reduced to a system ; and it just 
as well satisfies the real purpose — which is, to do all 
that is customary, and to submit to all the customary 
cheating. 

After the family have really got rid of the Under- 
taker, then comes the Lawyer, with the Bonze, to read 
the Will of the deceased. This is a new departure (as 
the English call it) in the family voyage of life. The 
Barbarian law is so erratic and confused, that no one 
knows what the dead man may have ordered to be 
done with his money. His Land goes probably to the 
eldest son, or nearest male relative ; and, if it be all the 
property, younger children may be left quite beggared. 
The Will begins with some absurd superstitious formula; 
and, prepared by a Lawyer, is only intelligible to him. 
He, therefore, is present to read and to explain. For 
no one is supposed to comprehend its jargon but the 
initiated. The Will is read, therefore, to those who 
only imperfectly catch its meaning ; and when a name 
is reached, the party listens with an eager attention. 
He may be one who, by nearness of blood, or by the 


160 


REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, 


nature of his relations with the deceased, expects to 
receive a handsome gift. When he, at length, from the 
mass of verbiage, dimly gathers only a gold ring or a 
gold-headed walking-stick, and sees some one, scarcely 
heard of, carry off the goods long waited for, he 
scarcely appreciates the loving token of regard osten- 
tatiously bestowed upon him! Nor is his smothered 
rage extinguished by the satisfactory expression of 
other relatives, who whisper, “Well, he cringed and 
fawned to little purpose after all!” 

From this Reading of the Will begins a new era in 
the family. Quarrels there may have been, but a 
common centre of influence and interest kept the con- 
testants in order. But now, nobody satisfied (or only 
those who expected nothing, and got it), all are in a 
mood to attack any one, to charge somebody with 
meanness, with treachery. So bitter animosities spring 
up. Lawsuits, hatreds ; families are severed old 
friendships sundered ; the lawyers stimulate the broils : 
and, at last, very likely the Will and all the property 
covered by it get into Chancery ! When I have said 
this, I have said quite clearly, even to the Barbarian 
mind, that here all are equally wretched and equally 
impoverished, excepting the Lawyers! 

The power of the dead man, by a Will, to cut off a 
wife or a son with a shilling (as the Barbarians express 
it), is monstrous. Then the unjust law, by which the 
next of kin takes all the Lands of a deceased, works 
endless misery. Think of younger brothers and younger 
sisters being forced to depend upon the cold charity of 
the oldest, who, by mere accident of birth, takes every 


BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 


161 


thing! And not only this, hut some distant male, 
relative may cut off the very means of subsistence from 
females very near, and throw them helpless, and too 
poor to buy husbands, upon the world! A disgrace 
and shame too shocking for belief. 

Then, too, the wife’s relatives may have paid to her 
husband the very money which, by the Will, is coolly 
handed to a stranger! 

Such anomalies are unknown to the customs of any 
well-ordered and civilised people. 

The new Widow usually remains shut up in her 
house, inaccessible to all hut her children, her servants, 
her Bonze, and her Lawyer, for twelve moons exactly. 
During this time she devotes herself to the prayers 
and invocations of the rites ; and will not so much as 
look at a man, unless the exceptions named. She is 
wholly draped in black; her children, her servants, 
even her horses and dogs, are in black. She entirely 
quits all the vanities of life ; she only allows her maid 
to smooth her hair. She suffers her hands and face to 
he washed, but never paints her cheeks, nor tints her 
eyelashes. If she go abroad, it is to the Temple to pray, 
or to the tomb (in some cases) of the “ dear departed,” 
covered from head to feet in thick black, followed 
by a tall footman, all black, bearing the Sacred Rites. 
If a man come too near, he is waved, with a solemn 
gesture of the hand, to remove away : this is the special 
duty of the flunkey. If, by any chance, the widow in 
her march happen to lift her thick veil, and catch the 
eye of a man, — ah! how dolorous must her prayers be ! 

Precisely at the stroke of time, when twelve moons 

M 


162 


REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, 


liave gone, the widow drops all the habiliments of 
woe , and is herself again ! — that is, a woman in search 
of a husband! — if she have not, from clear, sheer 
desperation, and want of anything better to do, already 
pledged herself to her Priest or to her Lawyer. Now, 
free and at liberty to choose, she may wish to look 
further ; but it is probable that “ the inestimable ser- 
vices” of the Lawyer, in her time of misery, hold her 
to recompense; or that the Priest, attentive to the 
precept of the S acred Writings (which commands that 
Widows shall be comforted ), has so well obeyed, that 
the Widow, completely solaced by the dear, good man, 
gladly rests with him ! 

The great book of Rites and Customs regulating the 
conduct of widows, of widowers — in fact, the ob- 
servances of Society generally — I have never been able 
to see. It is in the care and under the constant super- 
vision of a High-Caste of exalted state, from whose 
authority there is no appeal, styled Missus Grundy. 
I think a stranger can in no case be allowed to see this 
Illustrious, nor the Book. Indeed, I was told that no 
one, not even Ptoyalty itself, could inspect the Book, 
nor challenge this authority. It is hereditary in the 
mighty Grundy family ; and the head of the House is 
believed to be infallible in social observances. Another 
remarkable thing is, there is never a failure in the 
succession — a Grundy is always on hand ! 

Now, Missus Grundy speaks with more tolerance as 
to Widowers : they are not absolutely liable to decapi- 
tation if they marry again in less than twelve moons. 
Widowers, for reasons I do not know, are favourites 


BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 


163 


with the Barbarian females ; and young women with 
money will give all they possess to get a Widower, 
even when he have many children. It may he because 
of the love for the “pretty clears” as the young ones 
are called; but, whatever the cause,- the fact is certain. 
To gratify these gushing females, Missus Grundy allows 
a Widower to marry in a less time than twelve moons : 
it is so desirable that the pretty dears should have the 
tender care of a new (step) mother ! 

As the Barbarians have no Halls of Ancestors, where 
the family preserve with dutiful care the records of the 
virtuous dead — inscribed on tablets of brass or polished 
stone — and where, arranged in due order, stand the 
marble busts of those more distinguished — they soon 
forget the dead. 

The High-Castes sometimes set up monuments in 
public places ; in Temples and the Temple-burial 
grounds ; and inscribe thereon lofty panegyrics, as false 
in fact as they are bad in style — and no more thought 
is given to them. In truth, these monuments are al- 
ways considered to be to the honour of the living — who 
take the occasion to display their own wealth, characters, 
titles, or taste. 

The Lower-Castes do but little more than hurry to 
the grave the dead body, and dismiss the “unpleasant 
topic ” as quickly as possible — imitating as well as they 
are able the High-Caste, by setting up a & 'tone-slab, 
carved with a ruder but not truer description. Couplets 
in verse are often added ; and, as giving an idea of the 
humorous and coarse conceit of the Barbarian mind, I 
will insert some of these Inscriptions. 


164 


REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, 


Often the slabs are flat upon the ground, and the 
tombs ruinous and neglected ; in fact, very generally 
the burial-places, though holy , are in a wretched con- 
dition — tombs* fallen, stones and tablets prostrated, 
graves quite worn away Jby the careless feet of passers ; 
the whole place wearing a sad air of utter neglect and 
forgetfulness. One discovers a better culture making 
some progress, by curiously regarding these stones, in- 
scribed with memorials of the dead. They have slowly 
become less uncouth, less barbarous, and less devoted to 
the wildest vagaries of the Superstition. However, this 
observation is to be taken in a very general sense. 

Often, in the country, I have stumbled upon a singu- 
larly-built old stone Temple — standing quite alone, 
with the tombs and the tablets of the dead, clustering 
beneath the shadow of the lofty, square tower of hewn 
stone. Upon the hill-side, with a lovely view of hills, 
and soft vales, and rich fields of ripening corn, and 
scattered groves — with green meadows divided by flow- 
ering shrubs, where the flocks and the cattle fed. Hear 
by, orchards, white and pink in blossoms ; and all the 
air fragrant with a delicate perfume. At my feet, a few 
houses nestling among lofty elms — far away to the 
West, the sun shining above with slanting rays across a 
wide expanse of beauty — sitting upon a stone bench, 
beneath the ivy-covered Temple-porch, I have looked 
upwards to the serene sky, and outwards upon the 
tranquil and lovely scene ; and I have known no Bar- 
barian rudeness, felt no Barbarian Idolatry. The solemn 
Temple, eloquent in silence, the unbroken rest of the 
dead, the calm and delightful presence of Nature, these. 


BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 


165 


were here, these are there ; man unites his grateful 
worship across the wide world — the Sovereign Lord is 
worshipped, though darkly, by these Barbarians ! And 
in this worship (in time to be purified) we are one ! 

But I must give some specimens of Barbarian Inscrip- 
tions — by them called Epitaphs, when written to the 
dead — taken from tablets in places of burial. 

“ Here lies an old maid, Hannali Myers ; 

She was rather cross, and not over pious ; 

Who died at the age of threescore and ten, 

And gave to the grave what she denied to the men !” 

Another : — 

u Poor Mary Baines has gone away, 

’Er would if ’er could but a couldn’t stay ! 

’Er ’ad two sore legs, and a baddish cough, 

But ’er legs it were as carried her off ! ” 

Here is one which refers to certain mineral [zi-kli] 
waters, prized by the Barbarians for curative pro- 
perties : — 

u Here I lies with my four darters, 

All from drinking ’em Cheltenham Waters; 

If we ’ad kept to them Epsom Salts, 

We wouldn’t a laid in these ’ere waults.” 

Here seems to be one, not uncommon, which covertly 
shows its disdain for the gods of the Superstition : — 

u Here lie I, Martin Elginbrod — 

Have mercy on my soul, Lord God ! 

As I would on thine, were I Lord God, 

And you were Martin Elginbrod !” 


1GG 


REMARKS UPOX MARRIAGES; 


The following is most absurd : — 

“ Here lie I, as snug 
As a bug in a rug ! ” 

And some equally funny relative placed near, but not 
probably pleased with him, adds : — 

“ And here lie I, ^nore snug - 
Than (that) t’other bug ! - g**' 

A slang term for a low, brutal fellow. 

The following turns upon the word lie [pha-li], and 
the word lie [pu-si] : — 

“ Lie long on him, good Earth — 

For he lied long, God knows, on Thee !” 

This is ridiculous in manner of quoting from the 
Sacred' Writings ; and adding, without proper pause, the 
death of another person : — 

“ He swallowed up death in victory 
And also Jerusha Jones 
Aged sixty ! ” 

Here follow references to the Superstitious horrors : — 

u Whilst sinners [kri-mi] burn in hell, 

In paradise, with Thee, I dwell !” 

Another : — 

“ When the last trump doth sound, 

No more shall I be bound 
Within the earth ; 

My soul shall soar above, 

To shout redeeming love, 

Which gave me heavenly birth ! ” 

This I fear will be scarcely intelligible. The last trump 


BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 


167 


refers to a statement in the Sacred Writings , where it is 
said that a great Trumpet shall awake the dead, and so 
on. Probably, the remainder may be guessed by atten- 
tive readers of these Observations. 

The next intimates that the couple had been quarrel- 
some, but had, at last, silenced their bickerings in a 
common grave : 

“ Here lies Tom Bobbin, 

And his wife Mary — 

Cheek by jowl, 

And never weary — 

No wonder they so well agree : 

Tim wants no punch, 

And Moll no tea !” 

These refer to occupations. By a cook : — 

To Memory of Mary Lettuce : — 

“ If you want to please your pallet, 

Cut down a lettuce to make a salad.” 

By a sailor [ma-te-lo] : — 

• 

“ Here lies Tom Bowline, 

His timbers stove in — 

Will never put to sea ag’in !” 

“ Below lies Jonathan Saul, 

Spitalfields weaver — 

That’s all !” 

Spitalfields is a famous place for silk-weaving [tni-se-ti]. 

I need not make any criticism upon these things. 
They would be impossible to our better culture and 


168 


REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, 


refinement. Our Book of Bites would not suffer such 
low conceits to see the light if, by any chance, any one 
should indulge in them privately. 

It may be said in fairness that these are specimens 
of the low , and with these there is less indecency than 
formerly. There are, however, abundant samples even 
among the Higher Castes, of things in really as bad 
taste, though in neater language — quite as offensive , 
but to the feelings of right reason rather than to those 
of literary delicacy. They refer to the canons of the 
Idolatry, and seem, to a stranger to that Presumption, 
quite incredible. 

However, one must reflect upon the effect of super- 
stition, long ingrained, and “ born and bred ” till its 
enormities are as familiar as the most harmless images ; 
and its blessings appropriated, and its curses distributed, 
with an equal equanimity ! 

I have not referred to the great Pageants when High- 
Castes are buried who have been famous as Braves, 
either in distant forays with armed bands upon the 
Heathen, or among Christian tribes of the Main Land. 
Or, perhaps, some high chief who has ordered the great 
Fire-ships in burning and plundering beyond the Seas. 
I have not referred to these, because they are merely 
shows, and do not in any sense apply any especial cha^ 
racteristic. One thing I have remarked — there seems 
to be no respect for the dead, they are immediately 
forgotten, and the very monuments ordered to be set 
up probably never appear ; or after so long a period, 
that a new generation wonders who can be meant by 
the figure which rises in some public place ! And 


BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 


169 


when these are once placed on their pedestals, neglect 
falls upon them in a mantle of indescribable filth. Even 
royalty cannot have the royal robes of marble so much 
as washed by the common street hydrant [phi-pi]. 

It is impossible not to feel that the cold and coarse 
feelings of the Barbarians are, in respect of the dead, 
rendered more repulsive by the horrid features of the 
Idolatry. In this there is so much to brutalise and 
render callous, that it is only as it is disregarded, that 
the natural human feelings come into play, and tender- 
ness and delicacy find expression. 


170 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

OF ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SOME WORDS ABOUT SCIENCE. 

[kri-ote]. 

Until recently the Barbarians had no proper style 
of Architecture, unless in Temples, Castles, and Ships. 
The dwellings, even in cities, were as ugly and incon- 
venient as it is possible to conceive. 

When the great Roman civilisation disappeared, the 
barbarous tribes for many ages so slowly improved, 
that the aspect of common life remained savage. The 
Priests of the Superstition, however, saved some tinc- 
ture of Roman learning, and brought from Rome some 
of the older knowledge. These, however, directed their 
minds to the erection of Temples, and edifices designed 
for the objects of Priestcraft. 

Then arose those structures, truly wonderful, in 
stone, which exhibit so clearly the character of the 
gloomy Superstition : at first like those of Rome, hut 
in time added to and changed, till at length the vast 
Temples, truly gigantic, called Gothic, arose. 

These are like huge phantasms of carved stone, rising 
into the sky. Huge walls, buttresses, turrets, immense 
clusters of columns, vaulted and lofty arches, long 
aisles, lighted by strangely-tinted windows, carved 
masses of stone in prodigious strength, leaping, flying 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


171 


upwards, upwards, in grand confusion, and yet upon a 
strange, wild plan ! — giving expression to an imagina- 
tion only known to these dark and strong Barbarians. 
Externally, on all sides these Temples are monstrous 
idols in stone, stuck most curiously upon corners, high 
up in niches, on turrets and battlemented [trit-ti-sy] 
walls, over the sculptured, grand portals, everywhere — 
chiefly diabolic , exceeding all the dreams of a mad and 
dreadful frenzy, yet borrowed from the Superstition and 
illustrating it ! Others surmounting these dreadful 
things, angelic and serene — as if, after all, the human 
instinct spurned all the low and horrible intimations of 
things too foul for expression, and yet so frightfully 
attempted , in ghastly and grinning stone ! 

The Boman- Greek types knew nothing of such — 
how clear and beautiful these stood out, cheerful and 
clean , in the pure sky ! 

As art found this sort of expression in the structures 
devoted to the Superstition, so in the buildings for the 
chiefs of tribes the same spirit directed, though modi- 
fied by the object. In these art found pleasure, and 
the barbaric mind delight, to pile up lofty Castles of 
huge stone — dark, menacing — where all was for strength 
and to symbolise Force , and nothing for refinement, nor 
even comfort. These great structures are now, for the 
most part, crumbling away; not from change of bar- 
baric spirit in the love of Force, but from the useless- 
ness of the Gothic forms in the presence of big cannons. 
The Boman Architecture, somewhat altered, is gene- 
rally revived in buildings of importance. Yet the 
Priests build much as before — dropping off, however, 


172 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


the more hideous of the grinning idols. In this uncon- 
sciously giving a sign of the decay of the Idolatry 
itself. For when all its horrors shall have disappeared, 
the morality and the simple worship of the Lord of 
Heaven may remain. The improving condition has im- 
proved dwellings, particularly of the Higher Castes. 
The poor still grovel in huts and hovels, often too 
offensive for the healthy growth of anything but pigs., 
Among the Low-Castes, in great towns, the filth and 
stench are quite insupportable. 

In ships the English Barbarians pride themselves 
to be foremost. Upon this subject we may fairly give 
an opinion. There are others quite equal, and those of 
the Starry Flag often superior. 

At present the style is changing, and from wood are 
becoming iron, with such massive sides of thick steel, 
that no shot fired from any cannon shall be able to 
break through ! So these English think to sail with 
these huge iron machines into the waters of any 
people and force submission. For the mighty cannon, 
shooting out vast fiery balls of steel, are expected to 
knock to pieces any Castles and utterly burn and 
destroy any city. And sheltered in these impregnable, 
swift, floating fortresses of steel, these Barbarians 
expect absolutely to dominate over all the Seas, and 
to sink everything which dares to oppose. This 
supremacy is already vaunted; and all the taxes 
which can be got from the people, from the tea 
and beer which they drink, from the tobacco which 
they smoke, from the letters and papers which 
they write and use in affairs, and from a share 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


173 


of tlieir daily toil, are devoted (after handing a certain 
portion to the Queen and the High-Castes for their 
pleasures) to these big, floating machines of war, to the 
huge cannons, and to arm and pay the sailors and 
soldiers, that this domination he absolutely assured ! 
Still, so far, none of these terrible vessels have proved 
of any use, as they can neither float nor fight ; or, if 
they float, turn bottom upwards at a small breath of 
wind, and, if moved to act in concert, are so unmanage- 
able as to he only terrible to each other ! The sailors, 
therefore, dread them as unfit for the sea, and as Iron 
Coffins to poor Jack, who is forced to go into them ! 

The introduction of Steam has only rendered the 
Western Barbarians more conceited and more miserable. 
On nothing do they pride themselves so much as upon 
the tremendous Force , which they have acquired in the 
various Arts, by the use of steam. They, in this, as in 
other similar inventions, mistake the nature of the 
thing used and its effect. They think themselves wiser 
because they move faster — as if the hare be necessarily 
wittier than the ox ; and more civilised, because more 
powerful — as if the rhinoceros were to be preferred to 
the horse. 

At this moment, the Barbarian tribes of the West 
are devoting all their energies to this single notion 
of Supremacy. Force is absolutely the most coveted 
thing — to be strong, the only desirable thing. And the 
acme of that civilisation of which they boast, glitters 
only with polished steel, towering high, bristling with 
terrible weapons of destruction ! 

There are canals not much used, and not commonly 


174 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 

of good depth and width. The High-roads are nearly 
as good, in some parts, as those in our Flowery Land ; 
hut more frequently quite inferior, being either very 
dusty or muddy. They have none of the conveniences 
for the shelter or rest of travellers, provided everywhere 
by our Illustrious ; nor are the signal towers and fine 
shade trees, which give such beauty to our roads, to be 
seen, excepting occasionally, and quite by chance, the 
latter. 

The Bridges are insignificant, as a rule, owing to the 
littleness of the rivers; but they are handsome and 
strong, built of stone, in the Iioman style. They span 
the rivers, the canals, and form viaducts [pa-se-gyt] for 
roads- of Iron. Upon these roads, passing sometimes 
over the dwellings and streets of towns, move rapidly 
the long chain of carriages, drawn by steam-engines, 
conveying many people and much merchandise. These 
iron roads are numerous, and the works and buildings 
connected with them very great and costly. The Bar- 
barians greatly vaunt the usefulness of these roads ; 
but the rightfulness of their opinion is by no means 
apparent. They break up the quiet and the accustomed 
industries of the people ; excite agitations, produce rest- 
lessness and expense, accumulate too many here, and 
depopulate and render meagre there. They crowd the 
cities with the poor, and leave the rural districts empty ; 
the towns are overburdened and the fields untilled. 
They foster the extravagances of the rich and add 
nothing to the comfort of the common people. It is 
said that in the saving of time is a saving of money. 
But it is to be considered that this ease and rapidity 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 175 

of movement is not always usefully directed. It may 
be, and it is, largely used only to waste and dissipate 
money and time. It is said to save material measured 
in relation to effect. This is not clear ; for, although a 
ton be moved far quicker to a given point, who shall say 
that the ton moved by usual means would not, all 
things estimated, be as economically moved, and with 
■as good result to the common weal ? 

The real question is not considered, which is — Have 
Iron-roads added to the useful means of the people ? 
Consider the cost, and say whether such vast expense 
in other mode or modes of outlay would not have 
produced means more beneficial. 

How much more numerous and better roads, vehicles, 
buildings for the poor, improved culture, tools, larger 
ureas of recovered lands, new fertilisers, new and nume- 
rous schools — innumerable details of improvement — 
had the intellect, time and money directed to these 
roads been directed to the many needs of a people! 
The good, then, is rather the good which activity of 
brain and outlay of money naturally effect — possibly 
that activity and expense have not been most usefully 
employed in Iron-roads — indeed, very probably not to 
the good effect of a more naturally ordered expenditure. 
But the English, seeing the effect of a prodigious activity 
and employment of money spread over many years, 
place it to the credit of a thing — Steam ; never consider- 
ing at all whether the thing has been necessarily the 
cause, or only the accident. To what effect, during the 
same time, might that same energy and money have 
been applied ! The new power stimulated energy, and 


176 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


possibly misled it. It may be said that steam did its 
service by giving this stimulus. Probably not so. The 
question is, Has Steam after all misled — fallen short, in 
fact, of those effects which the usual and less novel 
forces would have produced? This is an unanswered 
question. 

In the industrial arts the English are not remarkable. 
They are good in fire-arms and curious in weapons, as 
may be expected. They are expert in making barrels 
and vessels to hold liquors from wood; need, which 
they call the mother of invention, made this art a 
necessity ; such is the prodigious quantity of beer which 
they consume. In dress-fabrics, in tools, in furniture, 
in metals, they show no more skill than our artisans, 
and in many articles not so much. We have arts, use- 
ful and beautiful, unknown to the Barbarians; they 
have things of mere show and luxury for which we have 
no use. In what is called Fine Art — that is Painting 
and Sculpture, particularly — we have but little to com- 
pare. By Fine Art is meant what is impossible to us ; 
it is for the most part intolerable to us. 

Think of the Illustrious of our Elowery Kingdom 
crowding into Halls, glittering with gilt and showy 
colours, to see there, arranged upon the walls and 
standing upon marble tables, great pictures of women 
and of men, often naked or nearly naked — wholly nude 
figures, mostly of women, in all attitudes, carved from 
marble, or made of a fine baked clay ! Hot only so ; 
but the illustrious mothers, wives, daughters, and female 
friends, accompanying the men to the spectacle ! The 
young man and the young woman together gazing upon 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 177 

tlie nude and flesh-tinted voluptuous female, glowing 
in the picture ! No ; we give no such encouragement 
to fine Art ! Yet our painters compare favourably with 
those of the Barbarians, in such proper use of the Art 
as is allowed by us. 

For the same reason, as Sculpture with us is only 
permitted where useful or innocent, it does not reach 
after such effects as with the Barbarians ; where a 
naked figure of a young woman, done in marble to the 
luxurious taste of a wealthy High-Caste, will command 
a great sum. None the less, our Artists can execute 
with fidelity, as our Ancestral Halls will show. 

Copying from the ancient Homans, in their most 
wanton and luxurious period, the kind of painting and 
sculpture referred to is most highly esteemed by the 
Christ-god worshippers ! Many of the Homan works 
have been discovered, and serve as models ; thus the 
ancients are imitated in their vicious taste, though 
condemned as very children of the devil ! 

With the decay of the darker terrors of the Super- 
stition, the mind, rebounding from asceticism , swung to 
the. other extreme. A rational morality and worship 
would have preserved a due medium. But with ancient 
letters revived a love for ancient art; and the in- 
decencies from that source were condoned to the excel- 
lency of the work — or pretended to be. The Priests 
took no care to repress this outburst of voluptuousness ; 
in truth, moulded its nude forms to the embellishment 
of Temples ; and, holding the warm fancies of its 
devotees, strengthened their influence by a new device. 
This zeal for the voluptuous in Art and reproduction 


178 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


of Roman types, began by the Roman Pope, spread 
everywhere. Thus the Superstition itself sanctions this 
taste, which to us appears so unseemly and immoral. 

In Parks and Gardens the English Barbarians are 
not surpassed. We have no equals in horticulture ; 
but in gardens the English are fine artists, and in 
parks have caught the true instinct of Nature. When 
in these, I have felt conscious of a fine civilisation. 
The lovely parterres of blooming shrubs ; the grand 
vases, rich in brilliant colours of delightful flowers ; 
roses, festooned, trailed in arches over smooth walks ; 
green spaces, where the sunlight lay warm and cheerful ; 
noble avenues of lofty trees.; sweet arbours, embowered 
in blossoms and verdant vines; shady walks, meandering 
among the trees ; groves of evergreens, musical with 
cascades, gleaming in marble basins ; and fountains, 
ornamented and sculptured in shining stone. Little 
lakes, where the breezes awoke the sleepy waves and 
chased them to the shore, and where the aquatic birds 
of many forms delighted to sport ! The whole place 
eloquent and still in beauty ! Here , no force, nor bar- 
baric rudeness, nor worship of brutal strength, nor of 
hideous forms, nor of lighted altars ! Here , the English 
Barbarian was a civilised man, and here I could love 
him ! 

Ah, when shall he, so strong, see his true strength, 
and know how to use it! Arm no more — teach the 
other Barbarians the proper use of Force ! Dreaming 
no harm to others, fearing no harm to himself, and 
using the revenues of his great tribe to render it invin- 
cible in virtue — how then invincible in all ! 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


179 


One day one of the High-Caste took me under his 
Illustrious protection, and conveyed me to his grand 
House, built of hewn stone in the ancient Roman 
method. It stood among fine trees, a long and glisten- 
ing facade [phr-not] of white and ornamental marble. 
He presented me to his illustrious wife, who graciously 
saved me from the too great embarrassment of her pre- 
sence ; for, as I shall hereafter explain, the custom of 
the Barbarians in this respect shocks all our notions. 
Hanging upon the gilded walls were the costly works 
of painters — among them naked women, coloured and 
tinted, in most voluptuous forms, smiling down upon 
us — upon sculptured pedestals, stood white statues, in 
rich marbles, of exquisite maidens, nude, and attractive 
in every graceful attitude and personal charm ! All 
this was surprising, if not pleasing — but when this 
Lord [Tchou] took me into the gardens and Park, there, 
indeed, all was calm — the agitation of my spirit sub- 
sided. ! 

Walking with him, he took me by the arm, and said, 
“ All, my dear Chin-le , how little we know of each 
other ; you do not understand how many things can be 
with us, nor can we understand many of your customs ; 
but here we are not unlike — in this art we meet on 
common ground.” I expressed my grateful sense of 
his goodness, assented to his happy reference, and 
then ventured to observe, “ Your illustrious treats me 
like a relation — a brother.” “In what respect — 1 
do not know.” “ Ah, you presented me to the exalted, 
the lady [da-mtsi] — with us that is to say, this is a son. 
or a brother.” He smiled. “Well, perhaps you aie 


180 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 

right. I rather think you are, in respect of women, 
though her Ladyship would not assent.” I delicately 

hinted my embarrassment. “ The pictures, the .” 

He laughed good-humouredly, and replied, “ Doubtless 
to eyes unused, such things look dazzling, and so on, 
but it is really only a matter of habit.” But then, I 
suggested, “ Is not Art misdirected when so employed.” 
“Well, possibly; but an elegant thing, a beautiful 
thing — why not give an expression to that beauty 
which is the most interesting, the most charming ? ” 
“ Does not that imply a purity above experience and 
above nature ? ” “I see ; you lead into an ethical 
maze — look there ? ” I followed his hand, and the 
noble Park extended on all sides ; yet, I said to 
myself, in our Flowery Kingdom, if a point be doubtful 
in morals we lean against the doubt. But is there 
any doubt as to these nudities l However, turning 
with admiration to the well-trained flowers, the spread- 
ing lawns of soft verdure, the beautiful vases of brilliant 
shrubs, the fine trees, with here and there a modest 
statue, or a marble fountain, I exclaimed, “ How per- 
fectly satisfactory and pleasing are these effects of an 
elevated Art, where nothing is suggested but what 
calms, cheers, refines, and makes generous ! ” 

“ Ah-Chin, my dear fellow, your enthusiasm is ad- 
mirable ; but we need more than the serene, the 
cheerful, and the generous ! ” As he said this he 
smiled at my look of bewilderment — for I was puzzled. 
Since then I have understood better. Art among the 
Barbarians must be suited to the restless eagerness of 
their nature, which demands excitement. And the 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


181 


passions which ought to be severely repressed, Art, in 
a hundred ways, finds itself best rewarded to covertly 
gratify. Thus, all the strong emotions are most coveted, 
either as shown on the canvas or in the marble. Male 
figures, nude, writhing, wrestling, and in attitudes of 
force, or expressing hate, or pain, or fierce contention, 
or, if in repose, lapsing into the languor of desire. 
Female figures, for the most part, so managed as to 
stimulate those feelings, or to suggest those incidents 
which a wise man likes to ignore ; or in such methods 
as to suggest emotions of shame, of terror, of suffering, 
or of crime — often debasing or evil in tendency, and 
rarely to any good purpose. Pictures of bloody fights, 
of burning cities, of great ships sinking, or blowing up 
with all on board ; of wretches tearing or cutting at 
each other, or struggling in blood and fury amid the 
waves. Statues distorted by agony, or paralysed by 
terror — in such, Barbarian Art greatly delights. In 
this, as in the sculpture of the Temples, showing, 
in another form, its fierceness and love of strong- 
excitement. 

In the cities, there are occasionally statues to men 
who have been famous ; and, in some of the great 
Temples, Sculptures of High-Castes are sometimes set 
up. They are, as a rule, strange exhibitions. Many 
of the great pieces consist of a crowd of figures in 
marble— an astonishing jumble. There are figures 
blowing great horns; other impossible ones representing 
huge human birds hovering about ; chiefly, however, 
naked women, with wings awkwardly fastened behind 
the shoulders, transporting the dead ; and others (again 


182 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 

females) with rings of leaves held in their hands over 
the head of the dead or dying man ! All this is done, 
or attempted to be done, in marble ; and involved in it 
will be a great ship burning, or great guns being fired, 
and men and women being killed by hundreds ; or 
other dreadful scenes wherein the great man took fearful 
part ! Memorials or huge paintings, in honour of persons 
famous in fight and plunder, are thus exhibited in the 
Temples and public Halls. They are, in general, very 
astonishing ! 

In the street corners are sometimes placed, on 
pedestals of huge stone, carved effigies of a King, or 
of a Queen, or of some High-Caste man. Of some 
Brave, who has cut off more heads than usual, or who 
has seized more plunder, or carried fire and sword over 
the lands of distant tribes. He is sometimes on horse- 
back; sometimes naked, with shield and sword, and 
very terrible ; sometimes so far aloft, on top of a high 
stone column, that nothing can be descried but a cocked 
hat and a pigmy figure under it. Rarely there may be a 
statue to some High-Caste, who has been distinguished 
for wringing more taxes from the common people, and, 
by this means, keeping large armed bands at work, 
abroad — to the glory of the English name ! more rarely 
a statue to the memory of any one renowned for a life 
useful to mankind. 

As works of Art, these things are not to be criticised. 
They are works of money — that is, paid for by weight ; 
merely meant to compliment a party or faction in the 
State, and not to honour, particularly, the subject of 
the Work, or to give a noble expression of human 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 183 

genius or skill. No purpose, perhaps, in the sordid 
workman other than to pocket the large sum for the 
big show ! Nothing wherein a grand imagination, in- 
spired by a fine enthusiasm and full of a noble con- 
ception, glows and breathes in the stone, and makes it 
imperishable ! 

Whether an unconscious disgust leave these public 
statues and monuments alone in their ugliness, I know 
not ; but they are totally neglected, begrimed, covered 
with filth — often made the roosting-places of the un- 
washed street Arabs (beggar boys) and loafers [na-sthi]. 
Even the statues of living Sovereigns are so totally 
forgotten and deserted, that the nose of Majesty may 
be a small pyramid of dirt, and the ermine robes 
more defiled and foul than the rags of the street 
mendicant ! 

The Western Barbarians are very fond of Science 
[kno-tu-ze] — (this is the nearest word in our language, 
though quite defective) — and consider themselves in 
this to be far superior to the ancients and to all the 
peoples beyond the great Seas. I have never been 
able to comprehend, nor do I think the Barbarians 
themselves comprehend very accurately, the meaning 
of the word. 

They will say of a man who is almost a fool, “ Ah ! 
but he is very scientific.” Of another, constantly 
blundering, and who has been famous for prodigies of 
mistake, “ His science is astonishing.” A builder of a 
great ship, or of a great bridge, sees his ship upset or 
his bridge fall down ; none the less, he demonstrates to 
his admiring countrymen that, upon scientific principles, 


1&4 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 

the ship should have stood upright and the bridge been 
as stable as rock ! 

A doctor kills his patient [vi-zton] scientifically ; a 
dentist cracks the jaw in extracting a tooth; a surgeon 
breaks the leg which he cannot set : Science is satisfied 
— “all was scientifically done!” A man spends his 
life in looking at the stars ; he is a man of wonderful 
science. Another keeps a List of fair and rainy days 
during twelve moons; his scientific attainments are 
respected and his observations recorded, as if the fate of 
the harvests were involved. 

You will hear of a man of marvellous science, before 
whom ordinary scientific men stand uncovered in silence ; 
he has discovered a new kind of tadpole , and added 
another to the already interminable terms of natural 
Science. 

I have heard one of these learned professors [pho-phe- 
sti] say wisely, “ He is a benefactor of the race who 
makes two blades of grass to grow where one grew 
before ; ” “ but,” he added, “ he is a greater who teaches 
mankind how to do this.” In this way, wishing to 
show that an idiot might chance to find a way to double 
his growth of grass, but would be incapable of discover- 
ing the cause ; so that, probably, the accident would die 
with the finder. A wise man would, at once, look for 
the reason, and finding that , be able to secure the benefit 
for all time. This knowledge of cause is the kind called 
Science. 

The explanation is familiar to us. In our Flowery 
Kingdom, the master teaches the rules, and the artificer 
puts them in practice. We call him an Artisan who 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 185 

has knowledge of an Art : we call him who knows how 
things ought to be done, and who examines into things 
so as to comprehend the best modes of doing, simply 
a teacher, or master. We do not see that his know- 
ledge, without actual performance, makes him a great 
man — a man of Science (as the Barbarians have it). 
Indeed, if a man do a thing merely mechanically, as a 
horse turns a mill, no doubt he is an ignorant artisan. 
Still, this stupidity does not exalt, in any degree, the 
nature of the knowledge of a brighter man: this one 
is only an intelligent artisan. On the whole, then, it 
seemed to me that the Barbarians, for the most pare 
very ignorant, were easily imposed upon by those who, 
having leisure, mastered the multiform terms (or some 
of them) used by the teachers of Natural History in its 
various departments. These, too, idle and with some 
ambition to be known, easily fancied that the dry 
knowledge of words was knowledge; and discovering 
with surprise at first, but soon with great complacency, 
how very little one need to know to be ranked with 
men of Science , at length prided themselves upon the 
very trivialities which otherwise would have been un- 
valued. In fact, finally imposed upon themselves as 
they imposed upon others, and really believed those 
trifles to be important, because confined to those who 
paraded them as Scientific. These busy, idle triflers in 
words become the men of Science . 

This is very laughable, and shows how mankind, 
everywhere, constantly repeat the same follies. In our 
Illustrious annals men like these have appeared and 
disappeared; founded schools, been admired, had dis- 


186 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


ciples, then passed into oblivion ; their works, often 
voluminous, never met with ; or occasionally dug out of 
mouldy bins and reproduced in some parts to show up 
the pretensions of a new charlatan — to show how 
much better the same things were explained, or the 
same terms used by an old and forgotten author, 5,000 
moons ago ! 

These men, as with us, constantly overrate the value 
of their labours ; the world really can get on without 
them. Getting together in Congresses [Bed-la-mi], they 
pay (or affect) great respect to each other, and put on 
an air of abstraction ; they are supposed to be ponder- 
ing upon the care of men and things, and feel the 
weight of responsibility. Other men may be trivial; 
but to those upon whom rests the due ordering of 
Nature, Care should be a genius and Dignity a 
presence. 

In these Meetings, nothing is worthy of debate 
unless it be Scientific. A plain paper, directed to a 
simple, useful object, and stating in ordinary and intel- 
ligible language the rules useful to the end, is not 
satisfactory. There should be something novel and 
obscure, or it is unlikely to come within the desired 
category. In truth, high and mighty principles on 
which man and the gods exist and move and flourish, 
or upon a disregard of which decay and dissolution 
follow — these are alone the proper objects of philo- 
sophers and men of Science; and involved in the 
profound investigation of principles , the Congress dis- 
appears from the common eye, and is lost even to 
itself ! 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 187 

On the whole, the value of these scientific men to the 
world did not seem to me tj be considerable. I mean 
as scientific men — without any of the pretension or 
cant [Bo-zhe] of their class, individuals may be useful, 
and would be more useful without the false glamour 
of class-vanity. A man of brain and who really thinks 
and examines, if he have anything to say will say it, 
and it will be judged by its merit. But when men 
having time and not knowing what to do with them- 
selves, and having some knowledge of words and but 
little brains , see an opening for imbecility , and are received 
and praised and dubbed Scientific , because they devote 
time and waste a large quantity of paper to give the 
world their thoughts — it is doubtful whether the more 
harm or the more good be done. To be sure, the idle 
and empty man may be rendered supremely happy in 
his vanity, and may have been saved from some per- 
sonal degradation or vicious inclination — but the world 
could have been well spared his Catalogue of the Parasites 
on the Lobster, or his Notes on the Habits of the Barn 
Swallow , or his Suggestions as to the proper use of 
smoke, or his Hints upon the hybernation of Eels. No 
great harm is done, for nobody reads these things but 
the men of Science, who are obliged to keep up to the 
work of busy idleness, in reading for debate with each 
other and at the Congress. 

This body professes to teach the proper rules for 
physical improvement, and its members are natural 
philosophers. They do not, however, confine themselves 
to the investigation of natural phenomena — they range 
over the whole broad field of speculation as well, de- 


188 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 

manding to know the cause of all things, and the very 
essence, object, and end. Jliose who take upon them- 
selves this wider inquiry, assume a dignity far above 
the mere Scientists — these deal with mere visible forms ; 
but those with the laws which underlie the forms, and 
with the source of Law, its origin, its object, and its 
end ! These are Philosophers ! and when a man is a 
man of Science and a philosopher, then no more is 
possible to human exaltation ! 

I have sufficiently referred to the works of these in 
another place. They cannot be wholly useless, if there 
really he a brain, honest and strong, at work. For to 
such patiently, humbly, earnestly, full of grateful re- 
cognition and conscious of the limitations of knowledge 
and of inquiry ; seeking and looking out, with sad 
eyes, upon the vast world ; to such, some new evidence 
of the grand order, some new and brilliant ray of 
divine illumination may come — not to show cause nor 
purpose, but to delight and tranquillise, to give new 
assurance of the Beneficent and Infinite Wisdom ! 

The English Barbarians have true men of Science. 
They are those to whom the people are indebted for 
nearly all of the useful discoveries and inventions. 
Men, who, engaged in some pursuit, apply a patient 
investigation and thoughtful experiments to see if they 
cannot improve the existing means to ends. In these 
investigations, they discover a new source or a new way 
of power ; and, in the experiments, new applications 
and uses of it. When these men fall into the hands of 
the Scientists and Philosophers, and, leaving their work- 
shops, shine with the gods, at the Congresses — they 


ART, ARCHITECTURE. AND SCIENCE. 


189 


usually end in that glamour — their light is no longer an 
illumination ! 

Of the musical Art, some things may be said. There 
is a wonderful variety of instruments — not many at all 
like ours. 

Some of the stringed are similar to our Che. There' is 
one, so enormous a structure, as to equal a house in size. 
It is made by a wonderful combination of hollow, metal 
pipes, ranging in size from a flute to a big cannon ; and 
in height from a span to the lower mast of a ship. Its 
sounds are many, single in melody, or astonishing in a 
wild, clanging harmony (the Barbarians think) ; but to 
me, discord. All the combined noises are terrific ; and 
surpass what the effect would be of our Che , Yuhnien , 
and Pieu-king all sounding at once ! 

In Singing, the men often roar like bulls, and the 
women scream, making hideous contortions. A hand- 
some woman does not like to sing. 

There is a Theatre — play — where all the parts, men 
and women, are sung. The passions of love, hate, 
jealousy, and so on, are sung and screamed at each 
other by the players in the most absurd manner. The 
woman will sing and shriek out the most astonishing 
gymnasts of voice, the man shouting and bellowing back, 
and then both together bellow and scream ; the woman, 
at last, falls into the arms of the man, or the man 
throws himself in a passion at the feet of the woman — 
both singing and screaming all the while — and the cur- 
tain drops ! Then arise the noisy plaudits of the spec- 
tators — demanding a repetition ! 

The barbaric music is, for the most part, like them- 


190 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


selves, rude and noisy. There are some exceptions — 
and in simple melody often sweet and tender. The flute 
and the horn are pleasing — the former is much like our 
Cheng. 

Occasionally, one or two thousand singers, and as 
many performers on instruments come together, and 
give a grand Musical Treat. Judge what this must be, 
when you add to this vast combination also the pro- 
digious House of Noise (called Organ) ! 

Oratory is an Art much admired among the Western 
tribes, and the English think themselves to be preemi- 
nent. I can hardly judge ; one needs to be a perfect 
master of a tongue to follow a speaker as he ought to be 
followed. Barbarous* races commonly produce effective 
Orators ; the imagination is vivid, the passions strong, 
and there is enough culture to make the forms of speech 
at least tolerable. 

In the Law-making Houses speeches (orations) are 
often delivered. For the most part dull in manner, 
insignificant in thought, poor in illustration, very in- 
effective. The members go to sleep, or withdraw, or 
rudely interrupt — sometimes coughing down the speaker. 
Very rarely are to be seen any flashes of eloquence, to 
be felt any thrill of its power. Unfortunately the same 
conceit, here as elsewhere, leads many to believe them- 
selves to be Orators to whom the ability to speak 
properly is denied by nature. Yet these insist upon 
“ airing their eloquence ” (as it is styled) on every occa- 
sion possible. Generally these men have some subject, 
nick-named by the other members as a Hobby, which 
must be spoken to whether the House will hear or not. 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


191 


Then occurs one of those scenes so characteristic. The 
Hobby-man rises and tries to speak. He waxes elo- 
quent (at least, he intends to be) on his favourite topic 
— perhaps the Pope at Eome ; or the rights of women ; 
or the 'purification of mud-streams ; or the poor man’s 
beer; no matter what, when the other members deter- 
mined to drown the speaker, break through all the rules 
of the House, the orders of the Head officer, and more, 
all the ordinary decencies, and caterwaul, and cough and 
howl, till, from mere impossibility of hearing his own 
voice, the poor, sguelched orator sinks into his seat. 

Now, the House prides itself upon the liberty of 
speech and of debate ; it is one of the palladia of English 
Freedom ; and this is a forcible illustration of the liberty. 
Anything obnoxious to the majority, or even to a noisy 
minority, may be silenced — such is the freedom of 
debate ! 

The English Barbarians especially boast that the 
Great Council (Law-Houses) is not only the foremost 
of all national councils, whether ancient or modern, 
in character and in wisdom, but also in dignity, and 
the extreme care with which is guarded that most 
inestimable of all Institutions, the Sacred liberty of 
Speech ! 

There is a kind of oratory, sometimes contemptuously 
called Pulpit-oratory by the English, which may be 
referred to, because it forms a considerable part of the 
literary entertainment. Once a week, on the Holy day, 
ten thousand speeches or more are uttered by the 
Bonzes from a high place (called Pulpit) within the 
Temples. From the place of delivery the name men- 


192 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 

tioned is given to this kind of speech-making. The 
speech is known by one name — Sermon. These sermons 
form a part of the rites in the Temples, and are there- 
fore numberless and never ceasing. As ought to be 
expected, they are as dull as such a formal thing must 
be. Some Bonze, new to his office, may attempt to 
give a little life to the performance. But the High- 
Caste do not like to be disturbed by any novelties ; 
they prefer comfortably to sleep in the soft seats with 
high-backed supports, where their fathers have slept, 
Holy-day after Holy-day, for generations before them. 
They will not have the Bonze, therefore, thunder the 
terrors of Jah in their ears, nor affright their wives and 
children by painting Hell and the Devil. Eloquence, 
therefore, in the Temples, if it 'exist, must be content to 
glide softly over “ green pastures,” murmuring drowsily 
with “ meandering streams.” 

The lower-sects are not so disposed to neglect their 
duty. With these the Bonze is expected to be “ in- 
stant, in season and out of season,” in the work of Jah. 
His terrors and the awful Hell ; the wiles of Satan ; the 
agony of the damned ; the danger of neglecting repen- 
tance ; the need of Salvation ; the glorious Gospel ; the 
blessedness of the redeemed ; the worthlessness of good 
works ; the absolute loss, here and hereafter, of failing 
to Believe ; all these canons are vomited forth from the 
pulpit with an energy, and, sometimes, when directed 
to unbelievers , with a vindictive ferocity, startling and 
overpowering. The hearers do not sleep ; even the 
boldest tremble, and the timid and weak sometimes go 
into convulsions of fear. 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 193 

There are itinerant Orators, who go about the country 
making speeches (and trying to make money) upon all 
sorts of subjects. They are rarely effective, though 
occasionally, when they happen to seize upon a popular 
fancy, or to stir up some popular feeling, they gain a 
certain attention from the Lower-Castes. Whenever 
effective, it is by blending some of the strong points 
of the Idolatry with the prevailing agitation. If there 
be some matter concerning which the populace presume 
to have any opinion, then the itinerant speaker has his 
chance ; and he is doubly influential if he mix in his 
discourse a good proportion of matter taken from the 
Sacred Writings and the Canons — this he distributes, 
to damn opposers and to reward adherents, with a com- 
bined Priestly and Lay vivacity and force ! 

We have, and have always had, ample specimens 
of these self-elected teachers and speakers; and they 
receive with us, in general, about the same neglectful 
consideration accorded to them by the Barbarians. 

On a review, it must be admitted that the Western 
tribes are ingenious in domestic arts, and not wanting 
in invention. In the fine Arts they are sometimes 
effective, though immoral — merely imitating the ancient 
Roman-Greeks, whom they call Masters. Their archi- 
tecture, when worth attention, is Roman. But they 
have produced one novelty, the Gothic— & wonderful 
outgrowth of the Barbaric mind, formed by its great 
Superstition. In painting, when confined to natural 
scenery and objects, they are sometimes very pleasing 
and correct. But in this department, where they are 
not immoral, they are often repulsive, seeking for 


194 


ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. 


startling effects, caught from the strongest passions. 
True Art elevates, refines, and pleases. It never lends 
itself to deformity , to the bad passions, to baseness. 
And it cannot sully itself by tampering with impure 
things. It recognises the twofold nature of man, and 
addresses itself to his moral instinct and love of divine 
beauty. 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 


195 


CHAPTER IX. 

OF AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

When the lowest-caste takes a holiday , decent people 
keep away from the place of resort, as they would from 
pestilence. The coarseness, indecency, and unclean- 
liness are too revolting. Hot that they really differ 
in the ways of enjoying themselves ; hut from their 
personal brutishness. 

The remarks following refer to those above them, and 
to the great body of the people, when at spectacles 
and public resorts. 

To me, unaccustomed to it, the presence of women 
everywhere perplexed and surprised. In days of sports, 
eating, drinking beer, gin, and other drinks, romping of 
the sexes, and an incessant restlessness, are very notice- 
able. In the .open grounds, all kinds of sports and 
games are going on; women and men dance, whirl 
about upon seats, rush after and chase each other, 
swing in swings, all in a wild revelry ! There will be 
games where the woman is now pursued, and now the 
man ; and now shouting, screaming, giggling, struggling 
and kissing, men and women rush after each other, 
catch each other; and then, reforming in ranks, go 
through the same wild pranks again. 


196 AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

The chief out-door sports are horse-racing, boat-racing, 
hunting upon horseback, bats and balls, foot-races, and 
the like. In-door : the theatres, the dancing-halls, the 
circus, and a great variety of shows and spectacles. 
Women attend upon all, and take a part in all — or 
nearly all. In the theatre, the circus, the dances, and 
many other places and things, they take the most con- 
spicuous parts. 

Horse-racing is esteemed as the greatest of all spec- 
tacles; and ranks as worthy of a national support. 
The Highest-Castes — even the Sovereign — attend. The 
Law-making Houses, the Great Officers of Adminis- 
tration, and the High-Bonzes, leave the duties of their 
exalted rank, and postpone the making and ordering of 
the Laws, to attend the Races. The Illustrious wives, 
daughters, and female relatives — even royalty — hasten 
to them, and esteem them as the best of all sports. 

Everj r Caste — thieves, beggars, jugglers, the very scum 
of the cities ; loafers , vagrants— rich, poor ; men, women, 
children — every description of person, rush or crawl to 
the Races. Every sort of vehicle, every mode of con- 
veyance is used: on horseback, on foot; in any way, 
the enormous multitudes crowd to the Races — it is the 
English Saturnalia (as an ancient Boman festival, noted 
for its licentiousness, was called) — I have heard the 
word punned [jo-akd] S atan-ail’ye, by jesters — meaning 
the Devil is in it. Not a bad notion, having reference 
to the evil effects of the sport. 

On both sides of the space where the horses are to 
run, immense numbers of carriages of all descriptions, 
booths, stands and seats, are arranged, where the vast 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 197 

crowds .stand, or sit, pushing, elbowing ; whilst the 
horses are trotted out, and the race is duly prepared. 
At length, a great many horses, ridden by little men, 
looking like Apes, rush off at a signal ; spurred, whipped, 
urged by the riders into madness, with eyes bloodshot, 
and nostrils distended, and every cord and muscle 
starting out and straining — whilst the multitudes of 
men and women stand up, shouting, leaping, screaming 
with excitement — sweep like a whirlwind along the 
course, and pass the goal ! And thousands of gold are 
lost and won I By as little as a head, or a neck, one of 
the horses is declared to be winner ! The name of the 
horse is sent all over the Barbarian world, and the event 
is watched for by millions — because bets are made, not 
only upon the ground, but in every part. 

I can hardly explain to the people of our Central 
Kingdom, the excitement and the confusion of this 
scene. The most illustrious men and women are pre- 
sent ; the great Bonzes are there — all classes, the lowest 
and highest, jumbled together, if not in contact, all 
carried away by the same wild passion. About the 
splendid equipages of the rich, mere human vermin crawl 
and fight for the crumbs and bones which fall, or are 
thrown from the feasting women and men, carousing in 
the carriages. In these, beautiful women laugh and bet 
with the men, drink the wines, and exchange a hundred 
smiles and jokes. Betting books are opened, and the 
women take bets and plunge into the vortex of the 
phrensy. The race is over, and thousands are impo- 
verished, many utterly ruined. 

With us the Theatre is merely a public, out-door 


198 AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

spectacle, of no importance, amusing the ordinary crowd, 
and free from immorality. Women take no part in the 
representations — hoys, dressed as females, playing for 
women. But with the Barbarians the Theatre is an 
organisation of government, and receives .the highest 
support. Women act, and are more popular with the 
spectators than the men. 

The first in estimation is the Opera. In this repre- 
sentation, as I have said in another place, the action 
goes on, all in Singing. To me nothing could he more 
ludicrous, more in defiance of all reason and nature. 
The most terrible emotions — fear, hate, envy, as well as 
the tender ; love, affection, friendship — all sung, and not 
merely sung, but bellowed, screamed, shrieked, in every 
contortion of throat and mouth ! 

In the Tragic performance the fierceness of the Bar- 
barians delights in dreadful murders, plots, assassina- 
tions ; in things which tear and lacerate human feelings, 
and bring despair and death ! 

The Comic is as coarse in loose buffoonery [Kro-sen- 
to-se] as the tragic is for an extreme of agOny, based 
upon crime and baseness. 

But the most astonishing of all the representations 
upon the Stage is the Ballet. I should not dare nor 
desire to refer to this, were it not to illustrate a point 
in the Barbarian character, only too prominent ; and to 
give further cause to the people of our Floivery Land to 
be thankful to the Sovereign Lord, that He has not 
permitted such mark of degeneracy to stain us. 

The Ballet is supervised by a very Higli-Caste Lord. 
It is composed of a band of young women, selected for 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 199 

beauty of form and of limb. They appear in public 
nearly naked, or so clothed in tightest hose [ld-i-e] and 
draped in thinnest diaphanous fabric, that what is con- 
cealed is half disclosed and more piquant than if left 
uncovered. Troops of these appear — dazzling in white 
or pink — upon the stage-floor. Before they show them- 
selves to the public, however, they parade, one by one 
(as I was truly informed), before the High-Caste Super- 
visor pf the Ballet, who, with his assistants, duly 
examines the legs, arms, busts, and drapery, to see if 
all be in due order. The drapery is carefully measured 
to see if it be of the required length, and, if too short, 
must be extended to the knees. Not to cover anything, 
but to satisfy a pretence. Bor these transparent fabrics, 
aside from that quality, are so contrived that they float 
off from the body and limbs with every movement — 
and the motions studied are those which produce this 
effect — twirling around rapidly being a chief feat. When 
the High-Caste is satisfied that there be nothing to 
offend the most delicate, and that all the demands of 
a pure Christ-god morality are satisfied, he sends the 
young girls to the stage, and they appear in the Ballet. 

This is a dance — why should I say more. But con- 
sider this dance is before the highest and best — in an 
immense and brilliantly lighted, lofty house. There are 
vast crowds, seated upon a level with, or just below the 
stage — in rows, one row above another, forming a grand 
half-circle, from the floor to the dome ; so high, that, the 
faces cannot be distinguished. Then the rich and glit- 
tering decorations; the paintings, the sculptures, the 
music ! 


200 AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

The music of innumerable instruments strikes up. 
In come the troops of half-naked girls ; their busts, their 
legs exposed. In they come, leaping, dancing, twirling, 
whirling, flying! They twirl around on the toes like 
tops. They spin on a single toe, sticking out the other 
leg — and, in this attitude, revolve about ! They retreat, 
advance, stoop, go backward, forward; twisting, twirling, 
throwing themselves, their arms, and particularly their 
legs, into all possible positions ; whirling about on one 
leg and extending the other, being the most admired 
feat ! This is (very faint) the Ballet ! 

Mothers, wives, husbands, daughters, sons, lovers, 
maidens, look upon this spectacle — and pray for the 
benighted Heathen ! 

Englishmen often remarked to me, jocosely, “ Ali- 
Cliin — no like the Ballet — why, the Theatre nowadays- 
stands on Legs !” 

It is a fact that, in those times which the Barbarians 
call dark, when ignorance and brutality marked the 
whole aspect of common life, the instinct of decency 
prevented women from appearing on the Stage at all. 
It is quite a modern invention. 

The Circus is another favourite show. In this, women 
appear, ride the horses, fly in the air, walk upon ropes- 
tightly drawn above the spectators, and form a main 
feature. They make the same study of exposing them- 
selves, and are undressed like the women in the Ballets 
They give to the performance the same kind of stimulus, 
to which is added the further excitement of danger. 
Eor in leaping, flying through the air, vaulting, and 
walking upon the tight-rope high above the spectators 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 


201 


the probability of a broken back, or neck, gives a new 
sensation. 

In the warm weather, the English Barbarians find 
great amusement in crowding to the Sea. Here, little 
houses placed on wheels are trundled into the waves. 
From these, women, men, and children wade, and plash 
and dive into the water. The women, and even children, 
often swim very well — the men nearly all. The two 
sexes bathe quite near, or together, in full sight of the 
people on the shore. Here, on the sands, thousands 
are walking, sitting, and lounging about, amusing them- 
selves in the idlest, sports. The men in the water are, 
with the exception of a mere loin-cloth, naked. The 
women, though tolerably covered, yet so carelessly that, 
with the motions of the bath and waves, they are suf- 
ficiently exposed ! In these sea-bathing places you will 
see Barbarian life in all its rudeness, and love of bois- 
terous fun and frolic. The men, and women, and chil- 
dren, abandon themselves to eating, drinking, bathing 
in the sea-water ; to sports and games ; to dancing, 
sight-seeing, and match-making. The last is the pursuit 
of husband-catching, which the free-'and-easy life at the 
sea-side greatly facilitates. 

Boat-races — sailing boats, and boats rowed or paddled 
— take place at these sea-side places, and are greatly ad- 
mired. They are unobjectionable, and natural to a 
maritime tribe. 

A strange feature is to see women go fearlessly into 
boats, and, hustled with the men, enjoy the excitement 
of the wind and wave, to witness these races, or merely 
for the frolic — but women are everywhere ! 


202 AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

The Cattle Shows are characteristic. Here, fat cattle, 
sheep, fat swine, fine horses, poultry, tools used in til- 
lage, fruit and vegetables, are shown; and the best 
receive prizes. Only a few of the High-Castes attend 
these, and then merely as a form. The real support comes 
from the farmers; and from the Lower-Castes. These 
crowd to the show, paying at the doors, merely for 
frolic and fun. Open to late hours at night, with music, 
lights, and places for eating and drinking, the mixed 
crowd of men and women delight in the hustling, 
crowding. The usual beer and other drinks are ready ; 
the usual giggling of women, surging, and elbowing, and 
pushing about ! One wonders much, whether the fat 
animals are not more respectable than the animals which 
crowd about them ! But I can hardly fairly judge of 
the real character of the crowds, for they are too novel 
and too offensive to the habits of our Flowery Land. It 
is certain, however, that the Barbaric element always 
perverts the most useful things ; and a Cattle Show 
must be debased and turned aside from its proper ob- 
jects. What have the women and men, who push and 
surge about the brutes, of interest in the thing ? Nothing. 
They may know and care for sheep, when roasted, or for 
fat swine, when in the shape of a rasher [fri-ie-tz]. 

The most curious, and, perhaps, most important of 
out-door scenes is the Hustings. When there is a 
vacant place in the Lower-Law-House (of the great 
Council), the Sovereign- commands a new member to be 
chosen by those who have the right, in the town entitled 
to send. A sort of stage is put up in the market-place, 
and here those meet who are to be hustled for. Hustings 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 203 

comes from this word, and means to shake together in 
confusion. There are some who wish to send A., others 
who wish to send B. Accordingly, these are seized by 
their struggling supporters ; each side endeavouring to 
put upon the stage its man, and each trying to put off 
the man of the other side ! One may judge of the 
hustling. Each candidate submits to every sort of in- 
dignity. The hustlers (voters, generally called) are 
chiefly of the Lower (not Lowest) Caste, and enjoy this 
privilege mightily. Beyond the immediate actors are 
the associates of the two parties — not having a right to 
hustle ; but, none the less, aiding in the general struggle, 
by pelting with rotten eggs, garbage, or other harmless 
(sometimes not harmless) nastiness [phu-fo], the man 
whom they dislike. Finally, one of the men is got upon 
the stage; entitled to be the new member for having 
had the larger number of indignities put upon him, and 
come out a-top ! These are — to have the head-covering 
driven violently down over the face — to be befouled 
with stinking eggs and garbage, and all the time to say, 
“ Free and independent voters,” accompanied by bows and 
grimaces, intended for smiles ! 

If the Lower-House, however, find on examination 
that some one has hustled twice — that is, thrown two 
missiles, then the scene must be reenacted ! For it is 
thought to be too dangerous to allow of this unfairness. 
If one could do this on the one side, then it would 
be done on the other; and in. the excitement, things 
harder than mu cl would be thrown, to the danger of life! 
As to the outside throwers, the police take care that they 
do not exceed mud, filth, rotten eggs, and vegetables ! 


204 AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

When the new member is chosen, he is called upon 
by his supporters to thank them in a speech. He rises 
to do this, and, bowing, says, “ I am powerless to express 
my grateful sense of the honour. Free and independent 
voters ” — at this moment a half-drunken supporter of the 
defeated man gives the signal. The rotten egg has 
fairly hit the new member in the face ; the crowd on 
the one side and on the other rush in pell-mell; the 
stage is broken down; stones, sticks, clubs, brickbats, 
are used and fly about freely ; noses bleed ; heads are 
cracked ; oaths and yells arise ! The new member, sur- 
rounded by his supporters, finally conquers ; and, placed 
in a chair, is lifted by strong arms to the shoulders of 
sturdy men, who bear him to his illustrious house, 
where his exalted wife and noble friends receive him 
with delight. The tumultuous crowd are feasted by 
the Servants ; and, finally, yelling and shouting for my 
Lord — the new member — he appears at a lofty window 
above them, thanks them once more, and disappears. 
The rabble leave the place, the gates are closed, and 
my lord and lady can congratulate themselves and be 
congratulated that the farce is over. Power and in- 
fluence remain with them — the indignities are all vmslied 
off — it is merely English humour. 

In these Hustings the Illustrious wives and daughters, 
as well as all male relatives, take part, and are obliged 
to take their share of the indignities. The dirty child 
of a low-caste (who happens to have a right to hustle) 
will be taken upon the silken lap of my Lady , and 
feel boldly in my Lady’s pocket for pennies ; and the 
daughter of my Lady sits down upon the stool and 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 205 

feeds the hungry old hag of aged poverty. The old hag- 
being ill, and mother to the hustler. In this way, and on 
these rather infrequent occasions, the hold Englishman of 
Low-Caste vindicates his manhood and shows his power 
in the State. But it is a mere form. The High-Castes 
understand the Barbaric temper, and consider this mode 
of amusing it the cheapest and least inconvenient. 
There is a struggle sometimes for the new membership 
between individuals, but these are always of the Higli- 
Caste connection and order. Actual power does not 
exist in the hustling rabble — that is in the High-Caste. 
Nevertheless, sometimes the Hustlers can determine 
which of two shall be sent ; and, therefore, it is neces- 
sary, when more than one desires to go, to submit to the 
hustling. Nearly all the worst indignities are omitted 
when only one person is named. In this case, all the 
hustlers being of a mind, they do not inflict more than 
the accustomed indignities, which are moderate in com- 
parison; though one would think sufficiently humi- 
liating. 

In the civic processions, which occur when a new 
magistrate is appointed to a city, one observes how the 
old barbaric features still predominate. Like children 
those things are most esteemed which grown people 
disdain or laugh at. Bude force and the emblems of it ; 
men absurdly accoutred in old, fantastic arms and 
armour ; banners which once marshalled trained men to 
war ; gilt and golden vehicles, conveying priests and 
officials ; these carrying glittering baubles in their hand ; 
loud music and bands of curiously dressed braves ; 
these things delight the multitude, which comes swarm- 


206 AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

ing out from every hole and corner of the city. Such 
crowds of both sexes, with children even in arms ! 
Nowhere out of these Barbaric and populous tribes can 
such a spectacle he seen. The vast throngs rush and 
push about, and woe to that decent man who gets 
entangled among them ! Often the selfish, reckless 
hordes, rushing through some street with a new purpose, 
overwhelm and crush every moving thing in the way. 

Women, children, strong men, are often thrown down, 
maimed ; even killed outright ! Thieves, beggars, the 
indescribable scum of degraded humanity, mixed with 
the crowd (in its own character hut little removed from 
lowest debasement), give it an air of unspeakable dis- 
gust ! 

Of these Civic Spectacles, a Coronation is supreme. 
This only takes place when a new Sovereign is crowned. 
No one is admitted to the actual Ceremony but the 
highest of the High-Castes. The common people, who 
bear nearly all the taxes to pay for the enormous cost, 
must be content to get such glimpses of the passing 
pageant, as is possible to them, at the risk of limb and 
of life. The whole thing is so guarded by armed bands, 
on horseback and on foot, with fire-arms ready, and 
swords drawn, that it is only by rushing close to the 
horsemen, and pressing upon the foot-braves, that any 
glimpse can be got by the common multitude ; and for 
these mere glances — under the bellies of horses, or 
between their legs, or through some iron railings, or the 
like — the devoted barbarians will risk their lives. Such 
is the admiration which this great show attracts ! 

It is thus admired, not only because of the awfulness 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 207 

of the Crown, hut also because the Idolatry plays so 
large a part in it. The new King is always crowned by 
a Highest Bonze, in his costly priestly robes, and 
anointed with holy oil ; whilst the Sacred Writings and 
Incantations are duly read and uttered ! The worship- 
of Christ- Jah and the other gods, are all pledged, to- 
gether with all the Canons and beliefs, including the- 
Divine Bevelation of the Jewish S 'acred Writings; in 
fact, the ceremony, in the Priestly part, is Jew through- 
out ! 

The scene is characteristically barbaric. Porce, and 
glittering display ; all the jewels, the gewgaws, the 
golden rods, orbs, bowls, sticks ; the spears, swords, 
steel armour, helmets ; the robes, furs, silks, velvets ; 
jewelled garters for the legs; ornamented chains in gold, 
for the neck ; coronets, for the hereditary nobles [Hi-fi] ; 
cassocks, gowns, mitres, staffs ; scarlet and crimson 
cloths, cloaks, and waving plumes of the great braves ; 
men in steel, on horseback — all these things, and a 
thousand more ! With the grand women, and the High 
Lords ! all are present. All is show and glitter ; and 
childish ! In the midst, out there rides a man, all 
covered with steel armour, with a long and flashing 
spear, who, sitting proudly on his horse, looks defiance ! 
A trumpet sounds; another dashes forward, and pro- 
claims the new Monarch; then the first, with a loud 
voice, defies to mortal combat any one who dares to 
challenge the right of the proclaimed Sovereign — and, 
thereupon, throws down a glove [kang]. If any one 
should pick up the glove, it would imply an acceptance 
of the challenge. Ho one takes up the glove. The 


208 AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

trumpets sound, the music strikes up in a hundred 
places; the vast multitude cry and shout, “ Long live 
the renowned, the exalted, the Illustrious !” — and the new- 
crowned man is King ! 

In this barbaric display, the money expended is 
enormous in amount. The jewels and mere inanities 
are so costly that, put to proper use, poverty would 
scarcely exist. Nor is this all ; the High-Caste get all 
the honours and emoluments, though they bear but a 
small part of the expense. Many of this Caste hold 
hereditary offices connected with this Show, from which 
they derive revenue and high honour! One may be 
hereditary sword-bearer, another cup-bearer, another 
towel-holder, another bottle-washer. Nor is this sort of 
sinecure {name for frivolous, useless Service) confined 
to males ; females may be hereditary folders of the 
Queen's night-cap, washers of the baby-linen, keepers of 
the robes, maids of the bed-chamber, and so on ! Still, 
such is the ignorance and debasement of the common 
people, and even of the better classes, that, although 
they pay for these expensive whimsicalities and bar- 
barisms, and never by any chance share in the personal 
benefits, they admire them ; and believe them to be, in 
some mysterious way, connected with their glorious con- 
stitution and privileges ! 

I scarcely like to speak of the displays by the braves. 
These are those on horseback, those on foot, those with 
horses, and cannons mounted on wheels ; and some who 
march partly, and partly ride. Our Flowery Kingdom 
knows these armed bands, and how rude and disorderly 
they are. How they plunder and kill the defenceless, 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 209 

and bum and destroy ! How fierce tliey are, and how 
reckless of order, even to their own chiefs ! ' 

But I will refer to the main display of these armed 
bands. Once or twice in twelve moons, all the bands 
being assembled, are divided into two parts. Each part 
has a great Chief at the head, with horsemen, footmen, 
and those with the wheeled-cannon. 

One of these Divisions is sent to a distance, and the 
other is kept at hand. Then the one near is com- 
manded to act as if the distant force was an enemy, 
who, having landed, was marching into the country to 
subdue it. In this way, it is intended to teach the 
armed bands to march, countermarch, hide, seek, ad- 
vance, retreat, get into ambuscade, get out of it, rush up 
hills, rush down hills, cross rivers, make bridges, con- 
struct roads ; 'pretend to blow up and to construct earth- 
forts ; pretend to charge, to fire, to shoot, to rush with 
horses, to swiftly move and fire the cannons, each against 
the other ; to skirmish in small squads [kong], and fight 
in large bands — in fine, to carry on a Military campaign 
(as the Barbarians term this prodigious nonsense). Some 
one said to me, “A very sham pain.” It seemed to me no 
sham to the soldiers — so far as toil is concerned. 

How, in carrying out this tomfoolery [hen-di-ho-ty], 
bands of armed men may be seen scattered over a wide 
range of country. Smoke of fire-arms and reports of 
the cannons may be seen and heard, in different parts — 
and a quiet traveller may be surprised to see suddenly 
a band of men, armed, rapidly approaching, with the 
bright steel glistening in the sun ; and, levelling these 
steel-spears affixed to the fire-arms, see them rush, pell- 

p 


210 AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

mell, upon a row of bushes, firing and shouting — then, 
suddenly recoiling, rush back and hurry to shelter be- 
hind some other row! Then cannon will bang, and 
smoke will rise from among trees near the place; and 
the horses will be seen advancing rapidly, dragging after 
them the cannon, which, being planted on a hill, fire 
and bang away; then, all at once, some great braves, 
with feathers flying, and swords flashing, will rush 
directly upon the cannon, even right into the mouths ! 

Then pell-mell other horsemen, cutting and slashing 
with long swords, and firing off little fire-arms, will be 
seen; and soon long lines of foot-braves will appear 
among the trees and bushes, and some will rush upon 
the others, and others rush upon them, firing and bang- 
ing away, in a manner very surprising ; and this is a 
sham-fight. Sometimes the braves get so excited that 
they really do fight in good earnest. As there is nothing 
but powder in the fire-arms, the danger is in the swords 
and spears, which are sometimes so used in the lifcat 
and excitement that many braves are really hurt. 

When all is over the head braves of the two forces 
make Reports of the doings of their respective divisions, 
complimenting the braves and the head men upon their 
discipline and order. 

On one occasion the Royal Prince and his attendants 
rode directly upon the mouths of a battery of cannon. 
Now the whole idea of the Sham is that everybody is 
to conduct himself precisely as if the doings were real. 
Any head-brave who forgets this is disorderly and liable 
to punishment. What would have been the fate of the 
Royal party had the cannon which they rode directly 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 211 

upon, been charged with balls as well as powder ! It is 
not to be found, however, that the Great Brave in his 
Report referred to this extraordinary exploit of the 
Royal Prince. 

With an enemy, real, deadly, strong, advancing into 
the country, then indeed the braves would have work 
which would stir all their wits and nerve all their 
strength. Marches in rain and mud ; toilsome nights ; 
work in the ditches ; cold and biting winds ; wakeful 
and wearisome watchings ; all endured manfully, and 
hardly noticed because it is real . Even a pauper dis- 
dains make-believe toil, and takes the pittance tendered 
for it as an insult. To the common man all this labour 
and exposure is very hard and very real — all the more 
so, because it is mere noise and smoke. No wonder that 
he is careless and indifferent ; no wonder that he curses 
the nonsense which wearies him without giving him any 
satisfaction. Show him true, honest need ; where the 
enemy of his tribe lurks, and he is alert, active ; calls 
up all his intelligence, looks to his arms, looks about 
him, and feels no fatigue. But this — he loses discipline, 
and is really demoralised by a Sham. 

Still the Barbarians greatly admire all this noise and 
blustering ; and the Head-Braves fancy that the bands 
are improved in order and in knowledge of arms ; that 
they would really understand how to meet a genuine 
enemy more skilfully, by having made-believe to fight a 
friend. All human experience shows the opposite of 
this to be true ; for the sham is certain to entail some 
of its mischief and injure the very qualities which it is 
supposed to improve. In the nature of things this 


212 AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 

affair cannot be good. The object is a sham — every- 
thing, therefore, about it is sham. The fight is a sham, 
and the fighter is a sham-brave, and, therefore, worth- 
less. Who doubts that he is injured by this pitiful 
work ? 

When these armed bands march in the displays made 
on public occasions, then, knowing th&t they are doing 
true work with a true object, they enter into it with 
spirit. Every man feels himself to be a part of a fine 
whole, and interests himself to do his best. These 
displays of the numerous armed men, marching with 
banners, bright swords and spears, with cannon, great 
troops of horses, long columns of glittering steel flashing 
in the sun, with brilliant coverings and gay colours, 
and the loud clanging music — these attract great multi- 
tudes. Whilst the High-Caste Braves, on grand horses, 
clothed in bright armour and steel, prance about and 
order the bands of braves. All are quiet and orderly, 
and preserve due restraint. One would not know that 
these are the same turbulent, untrained, reckless, and 
cruel plunderers and murderers, who devastate the homes 
of peaceful people beyond the seas. 

I did not see the big fire-ships, for it was not per- 
mitted to me. Or rather it would have been very un- 
comfortable indeed, for the rude and insolent Bar- 
barians in the ships know nothing of ordinary polite- 
ness and civility. They jeer my illustrious country 
and people, and mock at us wjth the brutality of con- 
ceited and barbaric ignorance. I was told that the 
big ships perform a great many movements, firing off 
the great cannons, and moving about each other, and 


AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES. 213 

pretending to fight — in this way to teach the head 
officers and the men how to manage the vessels, and how 
to fire the enormous guns, and how to shoot the big 
balls and fire-bombs, and other horrible things, in the 
most destructive way. Sometimes an old vessel is 
allowed to float on the waves, and the fire-ships shoot 
off the cannon halls against the hull, to see how soon 
they can destroy, burn, or sink it. Sometimes they 
send against it a curious machine filled with gun- 
powder, which, sinking under the old hull, suddenly 
blows up, raising the great mass entirely out of the sea, 
and utterly destroying it ! So ingenious are these fierce 
tribes of the West in all contrivances for the destruction 
of mankind ! 


214 


EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE, 


CHAPTER X. 

OF THE EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE, AND ASPECTS OF 
DAILY LIFE. 

I HAve spoken quite at length of the English Bar- 
barians as traders — these form a large portion of the 
whole. Below these are the lowest caste, workers, 
beggars, and thieves. The tillers of the land make a 
great part of the workers ; then those who toil in the 
mines, shops, and great factories; lastly, mere day- 
labourers of all sorts. 

The tillers of land are wretchedly poor. In the 
years of their strength they just keep from starvation, 
living in hovels hardly fit for a brute, and not so good 
as the Master's dog-kennel. When strength goes they 
become idle, paupers, and die in the poor-house 
[do-zen-di]. 

The mine-workers delve in the dark bowels of the 
earth for coal, iron, copper, tin, and other minerals. No 
beast works in more dirt, nor under more brutal circum- 
stances. Out of the light of day, far below, in pitchy 
blackness, illumined only by the faint light of a lamp 
fastened to his head, the serf toils — exposed to death 
from suffocation, by the falling-in of earth, from great out- 
bursts of water, from accidents of many kinds, and from 
the fearful explosions! He gets more money — but in the 


AND ASPECTS OF DAILY LIFE. 


215 


light of day, when he has cleansed himself from some of 
his weight of filth, the gin and beer shop give him the 
readiest and only resource ! The lives of these toilers 
and of their families are scarcely imaginable. An 
explosion sometimes destroys nearly a whole village ! 

The vast numbers, men, women, and children, who 
labour in shops and factories of all kinds, present a very 
uniform appearance of misery and degradation. They 
swarm in the great towns, amid the debris [kon] of 
coal and iron works, and in the purlieus of the places 
of labour — dirty, noisome, barbarous. No High-Caste, 
unless by mistake, ever goes among them; and even 
the lower avoid them. Worked by their task-masters 
all the day, from early morning till late at night, for 
such pittance as may keep them at work , what can he 
expected? Young girls and lads work together ; there 
is no decency (there hardly can he), connections are 
formed, children come; but who is to care for them ? 
What can describe truly the actual state of things ? 

When work is over, weary, without respect from 
others, and feeling none, therefore, for themselves ; no 
decent home, wife and children draggled and wretched 
like themselves, where else to go but to the warm and 
brilliant-lighted drink-places ? Here is warmth, shelter, 
comforting drink. Is it surprising that these, the only 
homes , take nearly all earnings ; and that the small 
remainder gives to the hare rooms, ragged garments, and 
squalid wives and children, that aspect of misery and 
brutishness? Whole quarters of towns are given up 
to this degradation. The portals of Temples, the porti- 
coes of grand edifices, the very steps of public charities. 


216 


EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE, 


are crowded with these victims of ignorance and selfish- 
ness — a selfishness peculiar to the cold nature of these 
Barbarians, and which receives its finest and most 
exquisite polish among the High-Caste. I speak of the 
steps of Charity Halls, where relief is supposed to be 
given to the starving; but on the very steps misery 
may find its last, wretched repose. 

It seems to be accepted as inherent in the nature of 
things that this abounding debasement and wretched- 
ness, wherein crime breeds by an inexorable law, must 
be. The crime must be watched and kept within 
bounds, and guards must carefully repress the disorders 
of this foul shame , but the thing itself is inherent and 
ineradicable. It may be so to the barbaric nature. 

The ordinary labourers of all descriptions, in the 
street, in the shipping-docks, in waiting upon the arti- 
ficers, in the digging, toiling, manual employments, 
differ not much from their congeners [re-la-tsi] in the 
factories and mines. Their habits are the same. All are 
alike really serfs, taking no notice of the refinements and 
the enjoyments of the higher-castes, and being every- 
where rigidly avoided by them. On a sunny day, if 
you walk in a public garden, you will see some of these 
miserable beings lying about on the grass, stretched out 
in the sun, asleep. By no chance will they occupy any 
place which is usually used by the upper castes, nor 
will any of these, by any chance (short of dire need), 
ever speak to or notice one of these low creatures. 
Sometimes an open green space will present an appear- 
ance like a battle-field after a combat. These serfs 
scattered around, here one or two perfectly still, there 


AXD ASPECTS OF DAILY LIFE. 


217 


some just turning or raised upon elbow ; sometimes an 
old crone resting upon a recumbent man ; most, perfectly 
still and flat, give an aspect of dead and dying strewn 
over the field. Occasionally men and women will be 
cuddled close together for warmth ; in truth, this grassy, 
sunny couch, is to them a luxury. 

The aspect of these day-labourers as they lounge, or 
slouch [gr-utn] idly about the streets, is repulsive and 
curious. They seem unable to stand up. Whether 
from the nature of their toil, or from mere shiftlessness, 
I know not. But they never do stand erect, and slouch 
along from one beer-shop corner to another, till they 
can lean or lie down. They cluster about the corners 
by beer and gin shops, rarely molesting any one, but 
frequently noisy and quarrelsome among themselves. 
They carry their strong passions and strong drink to 
their wretched haunts where crime and violence are 
rife. Women and children of this class are also at 
these drinking places, and give a feature to the degra- 
dation of unusual repulsiveness. These beer and gin 
shops, in low quarters of a town, are prolific of riot and 
crime, but abounding everywhere, in parts more decent, 
the police [ta-pki] are forced to be more watchful. A 
striking illustration of the callousness of the High-Caste 
is, that they derive their own revenues largely from 
this very degradation of the serfs — for an immense tax 
is paid by them upon the beer and gin which they 
consume — and this tax enures wholly to the benefit of 
the High-Caste. In the Law-making House , therefore, 
whenever some good man wishes to moderate this ex- 
cessive evil of drink and drunkenness; pointing out 


218 EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE, 

how Crime takes root and flourishes, and vice spreads 
from these drinking-places ; how the whole community 
suffers ; he is laughed at and pointed at, and made 
odious to these miserable creatures, as one who would 
deprive the poor man of his Beer ! In this connection 
of the serf with the rich man’s revenue, it is convenient 
to say “ the poor man ; ” on ordinary occasions, the 
“ drunken beast” or the “ brute,” would he more likely. 

There are parts of great towns where decent people 
never go unless by sheer need, and where in the night 
they would not go unless accompanied by a policeman. 
Nothing can describe the aspect of the dark courts 
and streets, of the mean and filthy buildings, shops, 
and dens ! Nastiness, foul smells, dirty shambles and 
garbage ; doors and windows smashed and stuffed with 
rags ; gutters festering with impurities ; and the human 
vermin swarming like maggots in rotten flesh ! Upon 
this foundation the palaces of the rich and the vast stone 
Temples rest ; one wonders that they do not sink into it. 

It is a great boast of the English Barbarians that “ a 
slave cannot breathe in England.” At first, when I 
heard this, I supposed that it meant that he would die 
under the conditions of life awaiting him — he would 
not be able to breathe — and therefore slaves were unable 
to live in the land. But the boast merely means that 
it is not permitted to add black slaves from abroad ; 
they cannot live in England ; nor do I think they could. 
I do not comprehend the boast, unless on the ground that 
it would be an expensive as well as useless cruelty to 
land even blacks , merely to have the trouble and cost of 
burying their carcases. 


AND ASPECTS OF DAILY LIFE. 


219 


I have called these low-castes Serfs , disregarding the 
barbarian fiction which calls them free. Not long since 
they were slaves under precise law ; now they are so 
by universal custom. When they were legal slaves they 
had some care and protection ; there was a tie exist- 
ing between master and servant; hearty service and 
affectionate concern rendered the relation not merely 
supportable, but positively advantageous. The tie is 
severed ; there is neither hearty service nor affectionate 
concern. The master possesses everything as before, 
but he is no longer obliged to maintain his labourers. 
These are numerous ; they must work or starve. Whilst 
they work they get enough perhaps to live ; no longer 
able to work, mere pauper-life in poorhouses and the 
pauper’s grave await them. Nor do the masters even 
pay for these ; they have cunningly contrived to have 
the expense borne by all who have anything to be taxed. 
Thus the severance of the ancient tie has only enriched 
the High-Castes and freed them from all obligation to 
care for the labourer, and sunk him into a condition of 
hopeless and debasing poverty. The freedom is all on 
the strong side ; the slavery more abject and less softened 
by humane sentiments. 

Now there are a few, who have some dim perceptions 
of these so obvious features to a disinterested spec- 
tator. They see that it is a poor compensation to the 
wretched misery which holds thousands hopelessly in 
its grasp, to point out an occasional accident of escape 
— where some one, more gifted and more fortunate than 
his fellows, happens to rise into comfort and slight 
esteem ! These noble men, the harbingers of light, who 


220 EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE, 

try to see and to act honestly, in spite of early prejudice 
and habit, perceive that there is no hope for these serfs , 
unless they can he moved with a higher interest. They 
think they discover a chance to move them by offering 
them knowledge , without, or nearly without, cost. But 
it is doubtful if they be not too low, too brutal, to care 
for knowing anything. Then, “ they must be forced to 
send the children, to be taught — they must be whipped to 
School .” This is resented as an outrage on the freedom 
of the serf — as an invasion of his family rights — as a 
positive, additional, tax and burden. For he gets some- 
thing from the petty work, or from the begging or 
thieving of the children, and now the Master takes 
that ! Yet, probably, this is one needful thing — to 
take the children into the hands of the State, in every 
case where the natural guardian is unfit to properly care 
for them. But the State cannot half take them. It 
cannot take anything of the present pittance, and claim 
to have compensated by giving words instead. It is 
cruel to say to him who starves in body, “Starve — I 
feed the mind!” A poor parent cannot receive even 
knowledge in exchange for bread. And it cannot be 
asked of him, in his low estate, to exchange the little 
added support of the child’s wage for the, to him, useless 
words of knowledge. In the face of want one cares only 
for bread ! Therefore, the State which teaches must also 
feed the poor — or see to it that the honest poor be first fed. 
If the parent can only feed by the help of the child, the 
State must not arbitrarily assume to be Master and 
Judge — saying, “Come to school — and starve, if must be.” 

The High-Caste, secretly, clog and obstruct all at- 


AND ASPECTS OF DAILY LIFE. 


221 


tempts to raise the low. Learning belongs to the 
master — ignorance to the serf. It is enough for him to 
obey and work. There will always be poor, and vicious 
poor. It is better to merely watch and guard against 
an Evil, for which there is no remedy. To give instruc- 
tion to the low-orders, is to arm demagogues with a 
dangerous weapon. “ ‘ A little knowledge is a dapgerous 
thing ’ — it only enables the multitude to see just what 
it suits the purpose of the Agitator to show ! There is 
nothing but evil in these grand measures. All must be 
left to individual effort ; and to the Priests. These 
must work as comes in their way ; instructing those 
who wish, and encouraging those who dutifully obey, 
and attend to the labours imposed upon them by divine 
Providence ” (Meaning, that Jah has ordained, from all 
time, that some must be “ Hewers of wood and drawers 
of water ” — a quotation from the Sacred Writings). 

In this manner, the High-Caste, when it condescends 
to the subject at all, dismisses it. Indeed, this Caste, 
the Master-Caste, really feels no other concern in the 
low orders, but a concern for their peaceful subjection. 
To this point they direct so much care, as to have al- 
ways trained bands of braves, and strong, picked, well- 
ordered men, called Police, ready at hand. So, in case 
the wretched, degraded, and despised serfs and thieves, 
should dare to raise any stir, disturbing the ease and 
enjoyment of the luxurious High-Caste, they may be 
shot down without mercy ! 

Hecessarily, the elevation of the low- classes will be 
very gradual. Many of the Priests, wishing to enlarge 
and maintain the influence of the Superstition , actively 


222 


ASPECTS OF DAILY LIFE. 


exert themselves among the honest and industrious 
poor. And some of these Bonzes are as benevolent as 
the traditions of their Caste and of their Idolatry will 
permit. 

It is doubtful if the present condition of the masses 
of the English Barbarians be so manly and independent 
as ages ago — when they were sufficiently intelligent to 
move in their own cause, and were really of some im- 
portance in the State. Unfortunately, they did remove 
from their necks the pressure of immediate, personal 
service, only to accumulate upon them, as a Class , the 
whole weight of the landed and trading interests. As a 
whole, therefore, they are more servile, more abject, and 
more dependent ; and the few individuals who may 
raise themselves above the level of their class cannot 
even flatter themselves in this to have gained. There 
never was a time when these individuals did not exist 
— it is not clear that their numbers have increased. 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 


223 


CHAPTER XI. 

OF THE HIGH CASTES: SOME PARTICULARS OF THEIR 
DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 

In this chapter I shall try to show some of the pecu- 
liarities of the opposite extreme of Barbarian life. From 
ignorant poverty, verging upon crime, crime and vice ; 
we are taken to luxury, also verging upon crime, crime 
and vice — though under very different forms. The All- 
wise and Sovereign Lord knows how to judge each 
class of offenders ! 

The High-Caste is very exclusive*— it will not, if it 
can avoid it, notice one of a lower order ; and never will 
do so unless it has some selfish end in view. This cold- 
bloodedness characterizes all Castes. When the Bar- 
barians, therefore, chance to meet, and being of near 
Castes, cannot be distinguished by dress, they never 
touch or address each other — hut stare rudely up and 
down the person, to see if it will be safe to he civil, the 
one to the other. 

In general, however, the two Higher-Castes present 
so many features in common, that a spectator may re- 
gard them as one. Both look upon all useful occu- 
pation as shameful ; and whilst it is hard to call up a 
blush for anything mean, detection in any honest work 
covers with confusion ! 


224 


HIGH CASTES : 


The women of this Caste appear everywhere in public, 
with the same boldness as men. They dress in laces, 
silks, satins, velvets ; richest furs, feathers, shawls, and 
scarfs. Are so addicted to these things, and to costly 
jewels, and ornaments of gold, precious stones, and the 
like, that a fortune is often carried upon and about a 
fine Lady. ( Lady is for the female like Lord for a male). 
In truth, a Lady only lives for two purposes — to dress , 
and to marry. I ought to add another, but whether it 
be subordinate or chief I know not ; in fact, I hardly 
know what it is. We have no very near word. It is a 
something of which you hear constantly — to flirt. To 
dress, it is necessary to shop [keat-hi]. This, is to buy 
the innumerable articles which make up a fine Lady’s 
wardrobe and personal appointments. Heaven and earth, 
and all the lands beyond the great seas, are ransacked 
to gratify the insatiate demands of Barbarian High- 
Caste women. The finest paints for the cheeks and 
eyelids, the most precious stones for the ears, the neck, 
the wrists, the fingers ; the most delicate perfumes, the 
pure gold, the richest furs and feathers, spices, oils ; the 
laces, scarfs, silks, embroideries an endless variety. 
Shopping is, therefore, the serious occupation (subsidiary 
to husband-catching and flirting) of ladies. Many ruin 
themselves, or their fathers, their husbands, or relatives, 
in this expensive luxury of idle vanity. High-Caste 
women show themselves in public, sometimes on foot, 
but, more generally, lolling, with poodles in lap, within 
open, grand carriages, drawn by great, high-stepping 
horses. (Poodles are nasty dogs). They attend the Tem- 
ples, waited upon by solemn servants, clothed in showy 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 


225 


colours, and bearing ostentatiously the Sacred books. 
They are conspicuous, when at the Temple, for audibly 
accompanying the Priest in the Invocations and Con- 
fessions : “ miserable offenders ” seeming to be a phrase 
rolled like a sweet morsel, and having a savour of re- 
pentance and humility, very edifying ! 

The men do not appear very numerously with the 
women — leaving them to do as they please. The men 
going off to their own exclusive pleasures: gambling, 
betting, racing, boating, hunting, and other things equally 
useful and improving. 

All through the night, which is the time of High- 
Caste revelry, the streets where the great live resound 
with the noise of the carriages, constantly busy with the 
transporting of the High-Castes to and from the 
Theatres, the Dances, the places of Amusements, the 
Dinners, the Parties, Pouts, and visits. To mark the 
difference of the Upper from the Lower, time itself is 
reversed ; night is taken for life and sport, and the 
day for rest, gossip [Quen], and shopping. In nothing 
could the difference be more striking. The luxurious- 
ness of mere self-indulgence, which takes no heed of the 
usual order of nature, and does not suspect that day 
has any better use ! When in the country, there is the 
same round of busy nothings. Visits, feasting, drinking 
— dancing, routs, and parties. Women taking the lead 
everywhere and in everything. Here, as in town, the 
business of life with women is to flirt, to marry, to 
dress — the last should be first. 

The men add to the follies of women some things 
more robust, but not more useful. Betting, horse- 

Q 


226 


HIGH CASTES: 


racing, riding over country with dogs, pursuing timid 
creatures — or gambling, drinking, and feasting. 

When I first arrived in England, I was amazed, and 
supposed all women were shameless [ba-tsi] that I saw, 
whenever I went in public. In our Flowery Land this 
class [ba-tsi], under the strictest survey and care of 
the magistrates, are barely tolerated, and forced to the 
most scrupulous decorum of dress and conduct. With 
us no modest woman of any rank ever appears in 
public. Therefore my surprise and astonishment may 
he imagined. Afterwards these were moderated, and I 
could make allowances for the force of custom. None 
the less the custom is remarkable, and will receive 
attention elsewhere. 

The mode of dress is simply wonderful. It is ever 
changing and ever indelicate and monstrous — especially 
for women. When I first saw one of these with a 
huge hunch on the top of her back, I thought the 
person was afflicted with an enormous tumour ; but 
when I observed the same thing on all hands, I saw 
my mistake. The great hunch was no more than a 
machine placed on top of the seat, under the outer 
garments. The effect is something amazing. The 
women in walking also wear the robe drawn as tightly 
as possible back and over the hips, so as to display the 
whole form from head to foot in front, and also in 
rear, excepting at the back-seat where the protuberance 
is. Here the clothes are clustered, and hang down in a 
trail upon the ground ! The feet are thrust into very 
high-heeled shoes, or boots ; so, in walking, the woman 
stoops mincingly forward with short, unsteady steps, as 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 227 

if pinched at the toes, rattling her heels upon the pave- 
ment, and tossing her hack-gear and headdress, and 
showing off to an astonished observer (nnnsed to the 
apparition) something to be remembered ! On every 
little occasion taking up her trail , and discovering legs 
and ankles. 

At home, when receiving male and female friends to 
dinner, the women do as they please — also in dances, 
routs, and the like. I was invited, soon after my 
arrival, to dine. I had looked at a Book of rites and 
ceremonies for the great, and hoped to get on tolerably 
well. On arriving, my first mistake was to address the 
servant as Illustrious, taking him for the master. In 
many houses the servant, dressed like the master (being 
much more of a man in appearance), may well he taken 
for him ; hut in some houses the servants are made to 
wear badges and colours of their station. Women are 
very choice about these men-servants, and will not have 
one unless he have very large, well-formed calves 
[fa-tze]. I have heard that the rogues supply this 
requirement by adding so much fine hay to the leg as 
will give due swell and figure ! 

Upon being shown up to the room, where I was to 
address myself first to the Lady — the Illustrious wife— 
I made my next blunder. The lady was large, full of 
flesh, rather red, with bright eyes. Another lady, just 
moving away, trailed her long robe suddenly before me 
— my foot caught and held her. She turned her white 
shoulders upon me, frowned — at the moment 1 
stumbled, and recovered myself awkwardly, with open 
hands full upon the ample bosom of the Illustrious ! 


228 


HIGH CASTES : 


Ah, my confusion! I could not recover my composure. 
I could see nothing but necks, shoulders, backs, bosoms 
of women, and eyes flashing at me — heads, and feathers 
and jewels — lights, noise, confusion ! I got away — 
never knew how. 

Women, when undressed in this indelicate way, are 
said to be in full dress. I think this is a sly sarcasm 
of the men. The men, however, dress in a manner not 
at all better. When in full dress, they put on a ridicu- 
lous close garment, slit up behind, and very scant, 
with two tails, which pretend to cover the hinder parts. 
The trowsers (an “ unmentionable ” article for the legs), 
no more than the under garment worn by us, is the 
only covering for the legs and lower part of the body ! 
Imagine the indelicacy! In this style of full dress , 
the women and men of the High-Caste Barbarians 
meet and mingle together everywhere, and at all feasts, 
revelries, and dances. 

In the shows within-doors the same mode prevails. 
At the public, spectacles, in full view of thousands, 
ladies sit exposed to the gaze of men, who often level 
at them the magnifying glasses taken for the purpose ! 
Critically examining the exhibition before them from 
a distance of twenty feet [tu-fai]. 

The dress of women on horseback is as follows : — The 
head is covered with a man’s head-gear, round, hard, 
high, black in colour, with a narrow rim. The bust 
and body are just as tightly fitted as possible, the hips 
and figure exposed in exact shape (how much made up 
no one can more than conjecture), and the legs covered 
by the dress falling over them long and full. The 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 22 $ 

woman sits on a side-saddle, one leg well up over a 
horn of the saddle near the front top, and the other 
supported with the foot in a steel rest. She is lifted 
by a male servant, relative, or friend, into her perch. 
And when she, with the little whip in hand, takes up 
the long strips of leather by whch she guides the horse, 
and starts off, there is a show the most curious ! Up 
and down, with every motion of the horse, she bobs 
[Ko-bys], exposing, to any one looking after her, the 
most precise model of herself ! but in an attitude and 
costume so remarkable, that I never saw even the ac- 
customed Barbarians disregard an opportunity to see 
this show , however indifferent they may usually be. 
Nor do I think that the Barbarian women esteem any 
exhibition of themselves superior to this. 

In the country you will see several apparitions of this 
kind, urging their flying horses after men and dogs, all 
chasing pell-mell some poor hare, which, running for 
cover, is pursued by a crowd of men and women on 
horseback, with dogs, yelping, barking, men blowing 
horns and shouting ; the women on the horses leaping 
over fences, ditches, and urging their horses as wildly, 
boldly as the men — and sometimes in all respects as 
skilfully and well ! This Sport is considered by the 
Barbarians to be very manly — nor do they consider a 
broken back, or even neck, as any objection to it ! 

The Rout is a favourite amusement with the High- 
Castes. So named from the confusion of armed men 
when routed — put to flight. It is to get together just 
as many people of both sexes as possible. With no 
sort of regard to the size of the house, but only to show 


230 


HIGH CASTES : 


liow many of the High-Caste will respond to the 
invitation. 

In full undress the ladies and gentlemen (Barbarian 
style for any High-Caste man) crowd into the house. 
Every stairway, every hall, room, chamber is filled. 
Refreshments are provided, but the flux and reflux of 
the people render all eating and drinking very difficult. 
The women flash in jewels, pendants in the ears, 
sparkling brilliants on arms, busts, ornaments of flowers 
and gems in the hair, jewelled fans in hand, perfumed 
laces and scarfs, tinted, and flushed, and adorned, ex- 
posed to bewilder and intoxicate the men — in fine, in 
the pursuit of husbands, or bent upon flirtations ! These 
entertainments are designed for the very purpose of ex- 
citement and match-making. “ Society is kept alive- 
life is made endurable by these things,” the High-Caste 
women say. They have no other business but to 
attend to such matters ; and to them Society looks to 
save it from dissolution and despair ! 

In the Rout all is confusion and opportunity. The 
young people, the old people, the highest and the lowest 
(permissible), are thrown promiscuously together. 
Women and men mingle, jostle, jamb, crowd, wriggle, 
and writhe together as best they can. The young lady 
suddenly finds herself quite in the arms of the young 
man who has saved her from a fall ; and he, in turn, 
“ begs pardon ” of some woman, into whose lap he has 
almost been thrown by a sudden press. 

Acquaintances may be made, flirtations begun, ending 
in something or nothing. But Society has had its ex- 
citement, and its members their chances for mere idle 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 231 

display, gossip, sensual gratification, or the more serious 
business of High -life — fortune-hunting by men and 
husband-catching by women! The Waltz and Dance 
are, however, the great game (for they are really one) of 
Barbarian life. Every Caste, according to its ability, 
dances — the low imitating, to their best, all the “ airs 
and graces ,” dress and flirtations of their superiors. In 
the Waltz, when the music strikes up, the man takes 
the woman about the waist, standing with the other 
dancers in the middle of the floor, and she leans upon 
his shoulder interlocking the fingers of her disengaged 
hand in his. In this close position, they begin to wheel 
around, around ; one couple follows another about the 
clear space left for them, till many couples are seen 
twirling, whirling about, around to the sound of the 
music — ever in this wild, whirling sort of a gallop, fol- 
lowing one after another, rapidly! The long trails of 
the woman are held up, the embroidered skirts fly out, 
the silken shoes and hose flash ; she is held close and 
more closely in the supporting arm, her cheek almost 
touches, her bust, neck, and face glow with excitement, 
the eyes and jewels sparkle, the man and woman whirl 
about, till intoxicated, dazed, and nearly exhausted, she 
sinks upon his arm and motions for rest, and he half 
supports and half leads her to some soft bench or chair! 
Such briefly is the Waltz. The dance is the same 
thing nearly, only more variety of movement is intro- 
duced. The whole object is to bring the sexes together, 
and keep Society alive, as before. Flirtation and match- 
making being main elements of social life. 

The manners of the High-Caste are not really more 


232 


HIGH CASTES : 


refined than elsewhere ; only there is a cool tone. 
Nothing must surprise, nothing confuse, nothing abash. 
A blush must be as rare as a laugh. A young woman 
seeing a young man gazing at her with bold admiration, 
must coolly look him down — if she please. His is an 
action of mere rudeness, or should be, when directed to 
a virtuous woman : but no, “ a man may gaze upon 
what is everywhere exhibited for his admiration — may 
he not?” And yet, with strange inconsistency, a 
woman has a right to complain if a man, captivated by 
the very means designed, too rudely express his pleasure. 
And one man is required to chastise another for 
the rudeness to his relative, though he know that, in 
the nature of things, the female should expect what she 
encounters — and more, the complexity is further in- 
volved, that though one man must call another to 
account for this sort of rudeness, yet every man 
indulges in it ! 

Young people, in public, of the two sexes, without 
shame appear in close intimacy — and will look upon 
statues and paintings of naked women and men, talk- 
ing and criticizing, examining the works and looking at 
them in company, without confusion, or appearance of 
there being any indelicacy. As if, in fact, in the bosoms 
of the High-Caste there did not exist any of the pas- 
sions of ordinary mortals ! 

There are very numerous galleries of Art, where 
statues, paintings, pictures, models, and the like, are 
shown, which are always crowded by High-Caste 
women, children, and men. And shop-windows are 
made attractive by displays of pictures of nude, or half- 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 


233 


nude, women and men, who act in the Plays, or who 
are notorious in Spectacles. This sort of indecency 
prevails; and strikes one, not used to it, with an 
unpleasant surprise. He knows not what to think of 
its significance — have all his ideas of decency been 
indecent ? 

I am not able to say much of the interior life of the 
family. I was told that a happy family was rare — 
quite an exception. It is only where the wife rules that 
any peace is secured. The wife is allowed to do, gene- 
rally, in Society and at home, as she will. The husband 
goes off to his pastimes and pursuits. Children whilst 
young are committed to the care of servants, and when 
older sent away to be educated and trained by hire- 
lings. 

The daughters, when grown, often move the jealousy 
of the mother by attracting more attention from men — 
they are often snubbed and made to dress unbecomingly, 
so that the mother may shine. 

Marriage among the High-Caste is an arrangement 
for an establishment; and to secure the succession of 
family name and title. To these ends great care is 
given to the money question. The man demands money 
for taking the wife. Domestic happiness is hardly 
thought of ; unless, occasionally, by very young people, 
and they are laughed out of their ridiculous romance. 

In the marriage ceremony, the wife, in the presence 
of the Idols, and following the Invocations of the Priest, 
solemnly promises to obey the husband. But this is 
regarded as a mere form. Any husband who under- 
takes to enforce obedience, finds himself branded by 


234 


IIIGH-CASTES : 


Society, as a “brute !” Much of the infelicity in mar- 
riage rests upon this false basis. For, with the virile 
instinct, man naturally expects obedience ; yet has, in 
his unmarried days, fallen in with the false notion of 
woman’s superiority in delicacy and moral virtue. This 
peculiar affectation colours all Barbarian intercourse 
with the sex. It has its root in the Superstition , pos- 
sibly ; where an immaculate virgin gives birth to a 
Son of god -Jali ! who is the Christ-god. Thus, woman 
came to be mother of God ! 

From this, very likely, followed all the false worship 
and gallantry of the barbarians ; who still, keeping up 
this mode of treating women as superior in excellency, 
could scarcely deny to them a superior place in the 
family. Assumed to be absolutely chaste and pure, 
they are to be implicitly trusted — nor to them is there 
impropriety ! Hence follows the fine Art exhibitions — 
the undress dress ; the waltz ; the mixed crowds — the 
everything , where women, according to the ordinary 
feelings of cultivated men, should not be, or be in a 
very different way. But the man before marriage, and 
afterwards, too, (excepting to his own wife), pretends to 
look upon woman as a divinity — as something far above 
him in moral goodness ! After marriage, it is difficult 
to dethrone this divinity — the man has not a divinity 
at the head of his family ; but all his friends (male 
friends) pretend to think so ; Society says so ; and he 
is himself compelled to pretend to the same thing. Under 
these circumstances he will never be likely to get much 
obedience. Hone the less, a struggle commences ; the 
man persistent, strong ; the woman unyielding, crafty ; 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 


235 


the family divided ; the children demoralized ; a false 
and wretched farce of conjugal Play , so badly acted as 
to deceive not even Society ! and finally ending in the 
Divorce Court. 

This is the tribunal where Causes Matrimonial are 
settled; and, if one may judge from its Beports in the 
Gazette , conjugal contention is exceedingly common. 
For the public cases must be few, compared with those 
where publicity is avoided by private arrangement. 

Doubtless, a fine man and an excellent woman may 
unite, and live happily together, in spite of the unfa- 
vourable conditions. But, more commonly, the high- 
minded man, really believing in the superior purity of the 
sex, and her greater moral delicacy, finds his Ideal to 
be too high ; and without absolute cause to quarrel ; in 
fact, seeing that his Ideal was itself only an error of the 
prevailing delusion ; ever after struggles to bring him- 
self into harmony with the existing fact — to love and 
respect a woman and only a woman, with a woman’s 
vanity, love of excitement, frivolity and caprice — a very 
weary work. The woman, too, still flattered, and exact- 
ing the devotion which her lover (now her husband) 
gave to her in his days of delusion, thinks herself treated 
with coldness; and, gradually, by her unreasonable 
complaints, estranges altogether the husband, whom 
she, too, tries to forget, in the admiration, flatteries, and 
excitements of Society ! 

The affectation and falsity, therefore, respecting 
woman, tends to a fundamental error in the relation of 
the sexes and the ordering of the family. It is a 
strange and almost fatal error to give this exaltation to 


236 


HIGH-CASTES : 


woman. No doubt, a real trust and respect tend to 
secure, in some degree, the virtues accorded ; and this 
true respect of an honest man, who places his wife, or 
his relative, before himself in purity, challenges the 
best of nature in the female. But man has reversed 
the true order, and run counter to the true instinct of 
the race (quite as strong in the female as in himself), 
when he thus puts woman before him, in anything. 
What authority is there for this reversal of the natural 
order ? Why is woman more moral, more chaste ? 
There is nothing in the nature of things, why the man, 
here, as in all things, should not be, as he is, the supe- 
rior — the master. In morals he should be her guide, 
her teacher, her best support. That Society is, indeed, 
unsound, wherein the man may be low and sensual, 
and fancy, or pretend to fancy, that the woman is better 
than himself — it is a delusion. Man gives the real 
character to any Society — the woman will not be, can- 
not be better than the man. The English Barbarians, 
in spite of the absurd falsity of their customs, must 
have some tolerably happy families. The innate per- 
ception of the eternal fitness of things will cause many 
couples to arrive at a proper method. The wife, with- 
out exactly admitting it, even to herself, submits to her 
husband ; and the husband, without exactly command- 
ing (except in rare instances), feels that he is really 
the head of the house — and the family gets on pretty 
smoothly, because living in the natural order. But, in 
general, the struggle for mastery destroys either the 
existence of the family, or all attempts at affectionate 
ways of living. To avoid public scandal, the members 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 


237 


do not actually separate ; but all harmony and true 
domestic life are lost— and life is a dismal and disor- 
derly rout. 

The exaltation of the sex and the complete freedom 
allowed to them belong to a state of society, if any such 
there be, where man is still more, excellent. There, 
indeed, a bright and beautiful ideal is made real, and 
men and women know how to love and to obey ; 
and love is as true as the respect and- the obedience. 
The Barbarians, full of immorality, of rudeness, of strong 
passions, of selfishness, controlled by a false conception 
founded in their Idolatry, act, in respect of their 
women, as if purity, cultivation, generosity, and the 
highest morality, everywhere existed ! This, so false, is 
well-nigh fatal to them. Yet, it is only an illustration 
of the uncultivated and confused state of mind, even in 
the highest, that so simple a thing as the natural 
order governing the relation of sex and family is not 
comprehended ; and that their Society is saved from 
absolute wreck only by the strong and controlling 
instinct of nature, which, in spite of obstacles, does 
bring the female into subjection to the male — at least 
to an extent sufficient to make life possible ! 

Hone the less the disorder of households is dreadful. 
Sons and daughters, as they grow strong, assert them- 
selves [Quan-hang-ho]. They act and speak (and in 
this follow the wife and mother) as if the sole business 
of the father was to give the means of selfish, idle 
indulgence. This would not be so unjust among the 
High-Caste, but it descends to all grades, and the 
middle orders are content to see the father toil at his 


238 


HIGH CASTES: 


business till overworked, or ruined altogether, in his 
efforts to supply these daily exactions. No doubt he 
himself is a victim to the whole vicious falseness — yet 
the cold-bloodedness of this conduct on the part of 
children and wives is remarkable. “Obedience,” or 
“ gratitude ! ” — Words sneered at, laughed at ! 

The daughters, directed by Mamma [na-ni-go], are 
taught to dress, to look modest, to practise all those arts 
by which they may attract the male and secure hus- 
bands, and are exhibited in public places and in Society 
accordingly. 

The sons are sent off to be taught. In the Halls of 
Learning they acquire but little of the knowledge paid 
for in the Lists , but a great deal of that which does not 
appear there. A youth may have entered, at least, 
honest, moral, and generous — he still leaves unlearned, 
but dishonest, corrupt, selfish — he has acquired that 
knowledge most sought for (even by his parents), a 
knowledge of the World [Quang] ! In truth, the 
youth instinctively feels that it is better for his success 
in life to know the World than to know Letters. He 
acts upon this feeling, which thrives in the demoralised 
atmosphere which he breathes. Father is called 
Governor , and is regarded as a sort of creature to be 
made the most of ! The money allowed (perhaps too 
ample for really useful purposes) is spent in things 
foolish and hurtful. Money and time are wasted. The 
latter is valueless, to be sure, to these youths anywhere 
— but the money may be wrung from relatives, who 
put themselves on short diet to enable the son or 
brother (who is defrauding them) to appear well in 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 


239 


Society ! To perfect himself in the learning which he 
feels to he effective, he devises new methods of wring- 
ing more money from the Governor , who begins to pro- 
test. To drink, smoke, lounge about with easy and 
cool impudence ; to stare into the face of women ; to 
bet, gamble ; to get in debt, and curse the creditors 
who presume to ask for pay ; to make, or pretend to 
make, love ; and generally to lay broad and deep that 
moral and cultivated elegance , to take on that exquisite 
polish [gla-mshi], which shall dazzle society; shall 
attract the silly butterflies (women) who have influence 
or money ; shall, in fine, shine in the Grand Council, or 
at the head of armed bands, or to the illumination of 
the Courts of Law! Noble ambition, based upon 
manly principles ! With the Barbarians to be a moral 
and wise man is to be a milksop [Kou-bab] ; to be a 
polished man of the World — admirable ! 

The English Barbarians who are fathers, generally 
consider it rather a joke to have their sons trick them 
and poke fun at the “Governor,” only it must be marked 
with some pretence of deference. If the “young 
fellows ” do not positively disgrace the family — that is, 
marry some poor creature whom they have first de- 
bauched ; or actually forge, or rob, or descend to im- 
proper friendships with inferior Castes — the parents 
esteem themselves to be fortunate. If he have ac- 
quired no knowledge of letters, nor of anything but 
vices, yet he is a “fine, manly fellovs, who will make 
his mark in the world.” That is, he is a tall, strong, 
active Barbarian — just fit for the armed bands ! 

The infelicities and disorders of family life, which 


240 


HIGH CASTES : 


only prefigure the inevitable confusion and evils of the 
whole Society, are more intolerable among the Middle 
Castes. In the Highest , secured revenues enable the 
wife and the husband each to see as little of each other 
as they please ; and so long as the husband is not stirred 
up by Mrs. Grundy (who is not severe with this Caste) 
he cares but little what his wife may do. He goes 
about his sports and his pleasures as he pleases ; and 
his wife, not wishing to be looked after, does not look 
after him. On this free-and-easy footing, with no want 
of money {Mrs. Grundy's decorum being observed), they 
get on well enough, and may even form quite a friend- 
ship for each other. But it is not possible to establish 
this condition in a family of small income — and here it 
is that the wretchedness of false principles has full 
scope. The husband and father, honest and good, finds 
himself mated to a woman, weak and vain, with children 
moulded by her. He, misled by false notions anci igno- 
rance, took to his heart one whom he fully trusted as 
simply true and modest ; he took her for herself and 
without money, and flattered himself that she would be 
a helper and solace. She and her children have made 
him a miserable slave , who finds no quiet unless he 
satisfy all their clamorous demands — to shine in Society ! 
If a good man, he tries to obey and live, even under 
exactions beyond his utmost efforts ; for he has learned 
to see that his wife, though weak, is no worse than the 
Society which she loves, and which he also cannot 
escape; he is merely in a false position, and must 
largely thank himself for having heedlessly entered 
upon it ! 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 


241 


But this kind of man is not universal, and one may 
judge what follows, where there is a man who will not 
yield, or yields only because he no longer cares for any- 
thing hut his personal ease and indulgence — seeking 
for pleasure, though unlawful, abroad, as the only re- 
compense attainable for the loss of happiness at home ! 

Such a man feels that life is insupportable, where he 
makes so wretched an object — to he merely the mute 
beast of burden for the family, without receiving so 
much tenderness and consideration as is accorded to 
the dogs lolling in the lazy laps of the females of the 
house ! He seeks, therefore, abroad for some means of 
enjoyment, though illicit ! 

This sort of picture is to be seen everywhere in the 
Barbarian Literature , and is constantly shown in all its 
minute and miserable exhibition .at the Courts of 
Divorce. 

Adultery, which in our Flowery Land is punished by 
death, is not so much as a crime among the English 
Barbarians. And, as it is the chief cause for which the 
bond of marriage may be wholly severed, one may 
judge whether the Court do not encourage the immo- 
rality. Eor when parties wish to live apart, here is a 
way to secure it, lying directly in the path of desire 
and opportunity. Then, too, the seduction of a maiden, 
which with us may be punished even to death, receives 
no sort of reprobation in the Court, and scarcely in 
Society. If the ruined girl be of low caste, her rela- 
tives feel no disgrace if the seducer be a High-Caste — 
rather an honour ; receive from him some paltry sum 
(not so much as he lavishes upon some favourite dogs), 


242 


HIGH CASTES : 


and buy with the money a husband for her from her 
own Caste ! 

With us a guilty intrigue is almost unknown ; with 
the Barbarians it is almost a pursuit. 

None the less, there is too much vigour in the 
organism; too much moral, intellectual, and physical 
strength, to suffer total decay. As is always the case, 
where the mind is active, even Idolatry itself has inter- 
mixed a pure morality, and the Barbarian nature, still 
unformed, untrained ; still rude and stirred by passion 
and by force ; wrestles with the divine instinct , and, 
unconsciously, often moulds to its light. 

Away from the glitter and sham (sometimes in it, 
but not of it), there are quiet families which live lives 
of honour. The father works honestly and cheerfully ; 
the wife, in her house, finds the beginning and end of 
her aims, of her love, and her duty. The husband- 
father is head; on him rests all responsibility, and to 
him belong obedience. This is not exacted; it is not 
questioned. It is founded in love and respect; love 
and loving obedience spontaneously arising from un- 
corrupted natures. His whole being responds with 
unmeasured joy. Whatever is pure, high, tender; all 
are for these — his wife, his family ; so true, so trusting, 
so helpful, so delightful. He feels no hardship ; there 
can be no sacrifice, for these; all that is done is in 
harmony with himself. Everywhere he is in accord. 
The very ills and misfortunes of life touch him not, for 
he is living in the divine order. 

And from such a man, the inside-life being serene, 
outer ills fall away. He is so clear and simple; so 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 


243 


whole that nature smiles for him, even in pain and 
sorrow; he lives in the presence and calm of the 
Sovereign Lord. 

These families are the Salt which saves. Among the 
Barbarians they are generally obscure, and as wholly 
unconscious of the service which they render as are the 
glittering inanities which ignore them. This should be 
reversed, and the Inanities sink into obscurity. 

I will now say a word or two as to the personal 
appearance and demeanour of the Barbarians. There is 
no standard of best-looking, and each tribe will judge 
from its best type. In general the eyes are too promi- 
nent and open ; the nose large and irregular ; the teeth 
bad or false ; the height indifferent ; the figure either 
too lean or too fat. The hair all colours ; red and light 
most common. The women are so made up, judging 
from the articles openly exposed for sale, that one 
cannot speak of them with any certainty. The hair, 
teeth, complexion, bust, outline of form, are all false or 
artistically got up. The eyes are too bold and open. 
The feet long, and hands large. Too tall, and either too 
meagre or too stout. The youth are sometimes pretty. 
The women are often brilliant under gaslight (a bright* 
artificial light). I have spoken of dress, but I may 
mention that the women, not content with every sort 
of made-ujp thing to add to their attractions, pile upon 
their heads an enormity of false curls, bands of hair, 
laces, and high sort of head-ornaments; it is truly 
amazing. Some of these gewgaws are hung upon big 
pig-tails of false hair, and some are stuck high a-top. 
Nothing really can be more absurd, unless the false, 


244 


HIGH CASTES: 


mincing steps, and protruding back. Some women are 
beautiful; but to my unaccustomed looks, even the 
brilliant eyes could not blind me to so immodest an 
exhibition— or, to me , not modest — so instinctively do 
we demand that especial quality in the sex, as the 
crowning grace of true beauty. 

One thing of a personal kind in the habits of all, 
high and low, I remarked, which would be intolerable 
to us. A lady or a gentleman, whilst conversing with 
you, or at the table of feasting, will suddenly apply a 
handkerchief [mun-shi] to nose, and blow that organ in 
the most astounding manner; and this may be con- 
tinued for some minutes, even accompanied by hauks 
and spits, and closed by many nice attentions to the 
orifices not worth while to describe. Surely this strange 
thing disconcerted me very greatly at first, nor do I 
understand how any people above savages could do it. 
A fine lady will interrupt herself in the very midst of 
speech, or of eating, with spasmodic effort, to clear her 
head; emptying into her fine pocket-handkerchief the 
obnoxious matter, and then returning the article to her 
silken pocket. 

However, we should not expect refinement in a 
Society where the women may boldly mount a horse- 
back, and follow men and dogs over ditch and wall, 
urging her steed with the best, to come in to the death 
of the poor hunted creature. And this, a noble sport, 
fit for a lady ! Nor this only, but will crowd to public 
spectacles, and be hustled and crowded promiscuously, 
forgetful of all delicate reserve. These habits are only 
to be criticised because of the boasted preeminence 


DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 245 

claimed in all such matters. But what would be thought 
of our Literati piling into the mouth huge morsels of 
flesh, or of guzzling [kun-ki] (with a gulping noise in 
the throat), great swallows of a hot, greasy liquid, be- 
smearing the lips and beard. The Barbarians know 
nothing of our delicate mode of eating, where all is 
silence and decorum whilst in the act. Another most 
unaccountable thing to a stranger is the robbery allowed 
by the servants of the High-Caste. If you accept of 
the hospitality of a great man, you must submit to be 
plundered by his servants ; and, as a stranger cannot 
know the limits imposed upon this rapacity, it goes far 
to destroy all the pretence of graciousness in one’s 
reception. When you have eaten at my Lord’s table, to 
think you are to be fleeced [pe-ekd] by my Lord’s flunki ! 

I was once invited by a High-Caste to come to his 
house in the country and shoot game. I accepted, 
and soon went into the copses to hunt for birds for the 
table. A servant accompanied me by command of his 
master, to show me the grounds and to wait upon me. 
He was very civil. The next day, upon my leaving, this 
man, decked in the livery [bung-shi] of his Lord, closely 
eyed and stuck to me, till, at length, I perceived he 
wanted something. Only partially aware of the Bar- 
barian custom, and blushing at the idea of feeing [tin-ti] 
or giving anything in return for hospitality, I awkwardly 
fumbled in my purse and handed to him a half-crown. 
He contemptuously looked at the silver piece, then at 
me ; and remarked that the “ gentlemen of my Lord did 
not receive gratuities of that colour.” Meaning that 
gold was only fit for such an exalted minion. 


246 


OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY, 


CHAPTER XII. 

OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — AND OTHER 
THINGS. 

The country is so small, that, riding in the swift 
steam-chariots, it is traversed in an incredibly short 
time. 

In those parts not disfigured by the smoke vomited 
out from the huge fire-chimneys of factories, mines, and 
the like, nor by the nearness of great towns, the country 
presents a green and cultivated look; nearly as well 
tilled as our provinces, Quang-tun and Chiang-su. The 
villages, Temples with lofty towers, great Houses of 
the High-Castes, here and there ; trees, gardens, smooth 
fields of fine verdure, over which cattle and sheep are 
feeding ; rising hills and sheltered valleys, rich with 
copses, orchards, and groves — all seen in moving views 
— give an aspect of peace, comfort, and wealth. You do 
not see the poverty, nor, too closely, observe the dwell- 
ings of the poor. 

In winter it is cold, and the whole appearance 
changes. Ear to the North, the sun gives but little 
light — and, like the climate of our provinces by the 
great Northern Wall, the cold is severe, and the gloom 
deeper. Ice is formed upon the streams and canals, and 
snow frequently covers the ground. 


AND OTHER THINGS. 


247 


In approaching great towns, you often catch glimpses 
of the crowded, wretched streets, where misery only 
thrives. In some places, in the winter cold, smoke and 
darkness, life becomes intolerable to many. Out of 
doors you can hardly find your way, and thieves and 
beggars emerge from covert to ply their trades. In the 
night, at such times, it is only possible to move by the 
glare of many torches ; and people are often robbed, or 
bewildered and lost. At this season of darkness many 
go mad. There is a strong vein of horror in the 
Barbarian imagination, derived from their ferocious 
ancestors, from their old idolatries, and deepened by the 
new. In the gloom, the misery, the wretchedness — 
sometimes in sheer disgust of life — many rush upon 
self-destruction — throwing themselves under the wheels 
of the steam-chariots, and from the bridges into the 
canals and rivers. Many persons are thrown down, 
maimed or killed in the highways, by horses or by 
vehicles moving along. Yet, in the grim humour of 
these barbarians, this is the very time when the 
High-Castes begin their revelries , and the Low-Castes 
most indulge in drink and riot. 

In travelling through the country, you will occasion- 
ally notice, seated upon an eminence, some strong 
Castle, or Place, of hewn stone, belonging to a High- 
Caste. It will be approached through long avenues of 
lofty trees, and stand pre-eminent among fine groves, 
surrounded by broad lands. These wide Parks contain 
many thousands of acres [met-si], left untilled and 
unproductive ; merely with their green slopes and 
spaces, interspersed with trees, to give grandeur to the 


248 OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY, 

Castle and its Lord. Still, if you look closely, you will 
discover near by, tbe squalid huts where huddle the 
Serfs , who are starving in the midst of this rich pro- 
fusion — Serfs, who never have an inch [toe] of land of 
their own, and to whose wornout carcases is begrudged 
a pauper grave ! 

The inequality between Castes is quite as conspi- 
cuous- in country as in town. One is born to an 
abundance, the other to hunger ; one to a life of 
self-indulgence, the other to one of enforced and hard- 
worked self-sacrifice. The one, at last, is covered by a 
tomb, embazoned with Honour ; the other is cast into 
an obscure corner of despised dead, to rot in forgetful- 
ness — though, often, judged upon a true measure of 
merit, the resting-places should be exchanged — and the 
idle and vicious Lord [chiang-se] descend into igno- 
minious neglect ! 

You will see deer, pheasants, partridges, hares, and 
the like, almost tame, in the meadows and copses ; but 
the tillers of the soil must not touch them, though 
starving — they are carefully preserved for the Lord 
[Tchou]. Hot that he needs them, or cares for them 
for food — sometimes he likes to shoot them for idle 
diversion ! 

You will notice sturdy tramps (beggars) resting, or 
lazily slouching along by the ways, with heavy staves 
in their hands ; and, if you suddenly come upon these 
in a secluded place, very likely you will be accosted — 
“ Master, I be’se hungry — will ye give me tuppence ?” 
You do not like the bearing of the man — and would 
not notice him. But you observe his face and the 


AND OTHER THINGS. 


249 


clutch of his thick stick — and you hurry to hand him 
a sixpence, and get away ! These scamps prowl about, 
idle, ready for mischief, scornful of honest work — the 
terror of women and children who meet them, unex- 
pectedly, without protection. 

Sometimes the Iron-roads for Steam-chariots are car- 
ried over the housetops, in entering towns ; sometimes, 
through long tunnels under the houses, or under hills — 
and the works in connection with these roads are sur- 
prising. The Barbarians of the Low- Castes are forced 
to incessant labours, to prevent starvation. These must 
be greatly directed to mines of iron, coal, copper, and 
tin ; and to various things made from these, and from 
wool and cotton. For the fruits of the land cannot 
feed the population. The amount of food which must 
be brought from beyond seas is very great — and to pay 
for this, the products of industry must be given. Now, 
other Barbarian tribes make these things also, and*, 
having them, do not require the English ; in fact, in 
more distant parts, undersell them. From this cause, 
many are unemployed and turned adrift — they have no 
land to till; they beg, steal, and starve. Should this 
inability of the English Barbarians increase, there would 
be no sufficient employment for the Low-Castes — there 
would not be the means of paying for the food required 
— and depopulation must ensue ! The wealth of the 
High-Caste must shrink — the English tribe must decline 
in strength ! 

Many of the High-Caste, already anticipating danger 
to themselves — fearing not merely loss of revenue, but 
the savage ferocity of starving multitudes — promote 


250 OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY, 

schemes by which large numbers of the poor are shipped 
off far beyond the great Seas (so that they never shall 
return) — to starve, or live, as may chance. “ England is 
well rid of them !” they say. 

In the neighbouring island, Ireland, an actual star- 
vation of the 'people in vast numbers happened a short 
time since. As in England, the poor serfs, tilling the 
soil and owning none ; at the best, toiling for the High- 
Castes for such pittance as would buy the cheapest 
food — potatoes ; when these failed, could buy nothing — 
all else too dear. These failed, the serfs died by thou- 
sands and tens of thousands. Hot because Ireland was 
destitute of food ; such was the abundance that ample 
stores were actually sold for other and distant tribes ! 
but because, in the midst of plenty, the starving were 
powerless to touch it ; it was out of their reach — out of 
the reach of paupers ! The potatoes were not — and they 
must die. The annals of no people record such a de- 
population of a fertile land, in the midst of peace and 
plenty — there is no parallel ! A people dying, not from 
idleness, nor unwillingness to work ; not from want of 
food at hand ; not from the ravages of war, nor pesti- 
lence ; but from sheer poverty ! Yet, the English Bar- 
barians boast that no people are so rich, so generous ! 
In our own annals are recorded great sufferings from 
floods, failures of crops, and natural causes ; where our 
vast populations have been for a time deficient in food ; 
but we have nothing to compare with this Barbarian 
horror ! 

The Thames is the only considerable river. This 
flows through the greatest of all the cities of the West 


AND OTHER THINGS. 


251 


— London. It is an insignificant stream — much less 
than even the Quang-tun , in our chief Southern pro- 
vince. 

As it flows through the great city it is, in some 
places, confined by high hewn-stone terraces [kar-tra]. 
These are truly great works, and useful, worthy of a 
strong people. On the river bank is the vast Hall of 
the Grand Council; with its lofty towers, turrets, clocks, 
and many bells. The architecture is not like anything 
known to us — it is the Gothic , which I have mentioned 
elsewhere. Why this style, so characteristic and fit in 
the Temples, is used in this grand Hall, I know not ; 
but probably because this barbarous form was that of 
the old Hall, destroyed by fire some time since. And 
the barbaric stolidity sticks to its habit, however incon- 
venient and unfit. Hot far away, may be seen the 
Dome and Towers of a fine Eoman-Grecian Temple, 
clear and defined, giving expression to an orderly and 
trained mind, severe in dignity and beauty. But the 
Gothic , expressing, or trying to express, something very 
different ; and, rising in the Temples of a gloomy, dark 
Superstition, to a horrible and unformed shape ! With 
that the disorderly brain burdened itself and the river 
bank — a pile at once wonderful and abortive ! 

London is very large, perhaps equal to some of our 
greatest cities. For the most part very dirty and grim, 
and badly built. The river shows its great trade — not 
inland, but from abroad. * You can discern, rising above 
the buildings, the many tall masts of the ships like 
forests dried up. And you will observe the numerous 
vessels with high chimneys ; these are the vessels moved 


252 OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY, 

by steam — and the incredible number of small craft. 
At one point you will remark the tall white towers 
and the high prison walls of stone, erected by the Bar- 
barian chief from the Main Land who subdued the 
English tribes in our dynasty Song, and made this huge 
Castle a stronghold and prison. 

Lower down rises, close by the shore, one of the best 
in style of all the Barbarian monuments. It is a fine 
Palace in carved stone, built, after the Roman forms, 
to perpetuate the remembrance of Victories gained over 
distant tribes. Within are great Paintings of these 
Victories. Terrible scenes of devastation and cruelty ; 
bloody fights and dreadful conflagrations, by sea and 
land ; rapine, massacre, unbridled fury ! These are the 
most admired of all things by the Barbarians — by the 
Low-Castes, who are almost entirely the victims, as 
much as by the High. The sight of these kindles their 
passion for bloody force. They Hoorah ! with an in- 
describable yell [zung] whenever they wish to show 
their frantic delight at any exhibition of brutal 
ferocity. This yell is greatly gloried in, and vaunted to 
be far more terrible than that of any other tribe — that 
by it alone, when raised upon the air by fierce bands, 
English Barbarians have routed armed hosts ! 

When one is in the narrow seas of the English, very 
many vessels may be seen, and near the coasts fleets of 
fishing craft. The fishermen live in great poverty, in 
miserable villages by the seaside. They use lines and 
snares, sometimes like ours, but are not so ingenious 
in catching the sea-creatures as are our fishermen. 
They have never trained birds to the work. Their huts 


AND OTHER THINGS. 


253 


are noisome, and their habits and dress unclean. They 
wear a curious cover upon the head, like a basin, with 
a long wide flap behind. This is all besmeared with a 
thick, black oil — and their clothing is stiff and nasty 
with the same unctuous stuff. The oil is to exclude 
the sea-spray and wet. Their speech is nearly unintel- 
ligible to the Literati , though comprehended by their 
own Caste; they are of the lowest — serfs. Multitudes 
of these rude and unlettered Barbarians perish amid the 
waves in the storms of winter — being forced to imperil 
their lives that they may live at all. They are quite a 
feature in some parts, with their awkward uncouthness. 
They are addicted to the grossest superstitions of the 
Superstition. They have many legends about the dark 
devil-god , and swear by him mostly. They seem to 
think to • cheat him^-though they cautiously observe 
those things which may entrap them, and nothing 
would tempt them to put to sea on the devil's day — 
Friday. To do so, would be to go to the devil's Locker 
(as they call it) at once ! This class is similar to the 
sailor [mat-le-si] known in our ports, and the character 
may therefore be fairly judged. The fisherman, in fact, 
often changes into the ships and goes upon distant 
voyages. 

There are no mountains, only pretty high hills, in the 
English provinces. The loftiest are in the far Northern 
parts, where are also some small lakes. In the winter 
these loftier ridges of land are sometimes white with 
snow. The inhabitants are savages, having their legs 
naked and bodies wrapped about in loose robes and 
skins, secured by a belt, into which a knife is stuck, 


254 OF T£E APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY, 

and to which a long leather pouch is hung. In this 
pouch they place some dry corn [matze], which, with 
strong wine in a bottle suspended from the neck, 
enables them to live for days. Thus equipped, they 
descend to the valleys, and drive off to their haunts in 
the rocky hills the cattle of the more civilised people 
of the plains. 

The English Barbarians have never conquered these 
fierce tribes of the Northern hills, but have con- 
trived gradually to destroy and to remove them. So 
that, at present, what few remain are quite tamed. A 
great many, in times past, were cunningly betrayed to 
the English and put to the sword ; but, in latter days, 
the head-chiefs have been bought by the English, and 
used to entice their ignorant but devoted serfs to enter 
into the armed hands to be sent beyond seas. By 
these methods, those distant Northern parts have been, 
in good degree, depopulated and made quiet. 

The Low-Castes furnish the fierce savages so well 
known in our Celestial Waters as those who live in the 
great fire-ships. 

Now, when the English tribe, being in need of many 
men for these ships (just about to go away to plunder 
and tofight), determines to have them, this follows : — 
Strong, brutal men, are paid to watch for the poor of the 
Low-Caste, and seize them. These cruel wretches are 
armed with clubs and swords and small firearms. 
They are sent into the places where the poor and friend- 
less abound, to seize any man whom they think they 
can carry off without much fuss [pung]. The poor 
cower and hide away ; hut these savage bands hunt 


AND OTHER THINGS. 


255 


them out, and bear off from wife and children, it may- 
be, or from any chance of succour, some unfriended 
man to their dreadful dens. Here they are beaten, or 
put in irons, or otherwise maltreated ; or they may 
have been brutally knocked down when captured. 
When gangs [twi-sz] are collected, the victims are 
forced on board the fire-ships to work in the dark, 
filthy holes, till, completely cowed, they are made to 
fire the great cannons, and to learn the art of sailing 
and fighting ! 

Many of these slaves of selfish, cruel force, never see 
their own land again, but are killed in fight, or by acci- 
dent, or by disease. Multitudes sometimes perish by 
a single disaster. These are, however, fortunate. They 
have escaped the brutal whipping, the loathsome 
diseases, the vile contagions, the inexpressible horrors 
of a continued captivity ! 

By these 'press-gangs (so-called) the fire-ships are 
often supplied with victims snatched from the unpro- 
tected Low-Castes ; and the Upper enjoy the idle and 
luxurious security which they rob from the blood and 
limbs of the friendless and obscure. 

This unjust custom, frightful in every aspect, receives 
the approbation and applause of the Barbarians very 
generally, who say, “ Let the fellows thank their stars 
that they can receive the Queen’s money and fight for 
her! Then look at the chance for prize !” By prize, 
they mean some pitiful fraction of the plunder taken. 
The stars are referred to, because the Barbarians fancy 
that everybody is born under the influence of some 
star ! 


256 


OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. 


I once noticed a painting, wherein a young man and 
maiden were represented as just leaving a Temple, 
where they had been married. Both were nicely dressed, 
young and handsome, with roses and nosegays [bong-no]. 
They were walking arm-in-arm, happily engrossed in 
each other, when, from an alley, out springs a black- 
whiskered bully [kob-bo] with drawn cutlass, followed 
by a band of half-drunken, armed wretches, wearing 
the sea-garb of the Queen ; he grasps the young man 
roughly by the collar — the picture attempts to show 
the indignant surprise of the man, the clinging tender- 
ness, fear, and horror of the maid ! But more striking 
to an observing stranger than even these, is the merely 
passing curiosity of the people moving about J The 
scene to them is not so novel. It is merely a press-gang 
doing its lawful work — if, by chance, a wrong sort of 
man be seized, it is none of the affair of these indifferent 
passers. 

Probably, the picture means to excite some compas- 
sionate interest by showing how very hard the press- 
gang system may work ! 

It would be vain to call the least attention to the 
matter, if the victim were merely a common labourer ; 
even the accessories of wife and children would not 
raise the scene into one of compassion. Nor does the 
representation, for one moment, cause any reflection 
upon a system wherein bullies [kob-toe] are employed 
to waylay and carry off unbefriended and unoffending 
men, at so much per head ! For, besides the regular 
pay, a reward is given for each victim captured ! 


LONDON. 


257 


CHAPTER XIII. 

LONDON. 

London is the capital city of the British Empire. 
This is the style assumed by the English when they 
speak of their whole power. It is a curiously con- 
structed empire — in some respects like that of the old 
Romans, who, however, obtained their domination more 
directly by valour and wisdom — whereas the English 
rather by cunning, accident, and fraud. I say accident , 
because the immense regions possessed by virtue of 
discovery come under the term ; and the vastest of all 
their distant provinces, that of India, was obtained 
chiefly by fraud, assisted by force. I say curiously con- 
structed, because these Christians are content to wring 
from Heathen subjects their last bit of revenue utterly 
indifferent to the idolatries and to the miseries of the 
people. If the Taxes come in and the wretched Hindoos 
starve, the main thing is to make the money and 
support ‘ our magnificent Empire ’ (as the English have 
it). So the wildest excesses may go on, and the native 
chiefs, who are mere creatures of their distant masters, 
may oppress the poor inhabitants ; still, now and ever, 
the Master demands money ; this secures the yoke upon 
the neck of the subjugated, and enables the English to 
make the vast Hindoo world a field where golden 


258 


LONDON. 


harvests are to be reaped. Boasting of liberty at home, 
there, a tyranny most odious is practised without pity. 
Then, the distant settlements where the poor English 
Barbarians go, to cultivate the lands and to trade and 
plunder, are held in subjection chiefly to give places, 
with large revenues attached, to members of the Aris- 
tocracy, who must be provided for in some way, as they 
ca,n do nothing for themselves. So this arrangement is 
very satisfactory, because the stupid Englishman abroad 
is just as devoted to the Upper-Caste and to the Super- 
stition as at home, and feels honoured to have a “ scion 
of nobility ” foisted upon him ; and is amply repaid all 
the cost by the privilege of “ cooling his heels ” in an 
ante-room of the great man, when he holds his little 
Court. 

The result is, that back upon London flows all the 
wealth which the English Barbarians can contrive to 
get. Having these distant regions, and a greater trade 
across sea, London has become the greatest mart of all 
the Western tribes. It is, perhaps, as large and popu- 
lous as our Pekin. It is the centre of Authority and of 
business ; not only so, but is the Metropolis of all the 
Christ-worshipping Tribes — or, as the Barbarians phrase 
it, of Christendom. 

The population is 3,500,000, or thereabouts. The 
bulk of this multitude is poor, and a large fraction 
paupers. Yet the English boast that “ it is the richest 
city in the world !” 

Most of the streets, courts, and buildings are very 
mean. In the winter, nothing can equal the repulsive- 
ness of the place. To the squalor of beggary, the 


LONDON. 


259 


meanness of abject poverty, add tbe darkness and 
smoke ; and tbe conditions seem unfit for human life. 
The rich shut themselves within their houses, drop the 
heavy draperies over windows, stir up the fires, light 
the flaring flames of the curious gas-lights, eat, drink, 
and sleep — shutting out from sight and sound that 
hideous outside. This is the time when the wretched 
in mind and body find existence too great a burden, 
and cast it oft' with a shriek and a rush — plunging into 
the river or canal, or dashing beneath the wheels of the 
swift steam-chariots. 

At all street-corners one notices the gin and beer 
shops. These are the homes of the poor, who find in 
them the warmth and comfort which are wanting in 
their domestic haunts. These shops are closed at mid- 
night, when the half or wholly drunken loiterers must 
straggle off into those holes and corners which are their 
homes. Probably there is no feature in barbaric life so 
curious and so characteristic as this — this Gin-house of 
the poor. The Government licenses these places, and 
derives a great income. The Upper-Castes fatten upon 
this very thing. What can be said of it — what done 
with it ? 

Another remarkable object in the London streets is 
the Street Arab. This is the name given to it by the 
Barbarians. But the Arab of Asia (if my reading be 
correct) is nothing like this creature. The London 
Arab is of the degraded and thieving class— the very 
sediment — but not yet fully weighted ! In years a youth, 
but in feeling a ravening, sharp, adroit animal, quick- 
ened by the exercise of every instinct, and cool and 


2(30 


LONDON. 


expert from constant habit. He dodges in and out 
from under the heads of horses and the wheels of 
vehicles ; mounts a lamp-post, or anything by which 
he may get a sight ; seizes the bundle which you may 
have in hand ; touches his uncombed front locks of 
hair, “Please, Sir, le’ me carry it, Sir;” and trots be- 
fore you, happy if he get twopence. Nobody knows 
where he sleeps, or eats, nor how he lives, at all. I 
have suddenly come upon two or more of them, when 
resting upon an iron grating. Their naked feet and 
heads, their thin limbs hung about with dirty rags, and 
their teeth chattering with cold — but never a word of 
complaint — no seeming thought of anything hard or 
uncommon. These iron bars cover, sometimes, an area 
below, into which the warm, moist air of kitchens comes, 
and rises through the gratings, loaded with the smell of 
cookery. Upon these bars will huddle together these 
half-naked and starved outcasts, happy in the partial 
warmth, and a hope of food — for, if only a bone, or a 
bit of that steaming soup could by any chance be theirs ! 
Poor girls, of this wretchedness born, shivering upon 
the wintry swept corners, timidly offer you matches 
[kin-fue], “Please, Sir, buy” — and will run along by your 
side, if you give them a half-glance, begging you for 
pity to buy. Human misery finds no greater examples, 
nor any form of degradation deeper depths, than the 
lowest class of London — nor of London only, but of all 
the great towns. 

This degradation takes on every shape of misery and 
shame. Crime of every kind breeds in it — disease, 
despair, and death ! Is it inseparable from human ex- 


LOXDON. 


261 


istence — must excellence in humanity he only for the 
few ? 

London has for Misery its Charities — for Crime its 
vast Stone prisons. The latter are more accessible, and, 
for the offences of mere poverty, quite as desirable. 
Pauperism detests the alms-house — it hates subordina- 
tion ; and will, sometimes, starve before it seeks the 
bread of scornful wealth. Extreme indigence hardens 
— softness is turned to stone — human instinct feels 
wronged. “I wish work and pay, not idleness and 
pauper-bread.” The cruel thing with the poor is, that 
at first, there is not debasement. Work is sought — but, 
continued inability to find work and honest bread, leads 
in the bad demon — which loves not, cares not, feels not 
— renders inhuman. 

In walking the streets one feels the cold nature of 
the English Barbarians — one sees its exhibition every- 
where. It is intensified by Caste divisions : there is no 
real sympathy. An Englishman shows in the streets, 
and in all public places, the indifference of a brute. 
Nothing moves him, nothing makes him laugh, smile, or 
give any sign of emotion. In sports, nominally sportive, 
there is nothing of gaiety — only with the Low- Castes 
very coarse and rough brutishness ; and with the Upper 
a repulsive cynicism. This mood gives to the life of 
the streets no pleasing animation — only, at best, mere 
animal movement, as if each beast was intent upon his 
own particular hunger. At the Play there is no show of 
genuine enjoyment — and the dance (somebody said to 
me once) might be a dance of Death, so far as any lively 
pleasure appears. 


262 


LONDON. 


The Hansom Cab — of which there are thousands — is 
a singular and characteristic thing. It is a vehicle of 
two wheels, drawn by one horse, and carries two pas- 
sengers. The Barbarians, intent upon gain, allow the 
driver to urge his horse at speed through the crowded 
streets, giving no other warning than hi-hi ! Every- 
body must look out at his own peril ; for life and limb 
are unimportant compared with speed in business. One 
would not credit this — but as I have been nearly run 
over by these drivers more than once, not hearing the 
hi-hi ! I can vouch for the existence of these privileged 
vehicles. The use of them is based upon the same rule, 
which allows of so many other things, to us inhuman 
or unjust — to say — that ‘ the convenience of trade ’ is 
paramount to trifling risks of life, limb, or soundness of 
abstract morality. 

Another public chariot for passengers is the Omnibus. 
These are very numerous on the great thoroughfares. 
It is drawn by two horses, and will hold twelve or more 
inside and fourteen outside, upon the top. These are 
licensed by the law, and convey people a long distance 
for a small sum. The name is from the Roman, and 
means a bus (kiss) for all — a ridiculous term for which 
I can give no explanation, unless, as women and men 
ride in them promiscuously, some of the sly and coarse 
humour of the Barbarians may be meant. I refer, how- 
ever, to the carriage, to give an illustration of street life, 
and of the English bearishness [che-liftze]. I have 
seen women and children waiting at a corner in the 
mud and rain, for the 'Bus, and when it has stopped, I 
have seen men rudely elbow themselves to the front 


LONDON. 


263 


and enter upon the unoccupied seats, leaving the women 
to the inclemency of winter, or to the rain and sleet. 
And these not the Roughs, hut gentlemen. This, too, 
one would scarcely believe, if one did not see. 

The police [ki-ti] of London is noted for its stupidity ; 
its members are the perpetual butt [la-phe] of farces 
and plays in the Theatres. Yet the liberty and the 
good name of the citizens are at their mercy. If a 
stranger be hustled and mobbed, it will be well for him 
to get out of the affair without any call for the police, 
for if one of these should come up, he will be as likely 
to pounce upon the innocent and injured as upon the 
wrong-doer. And he likes to make his arrest appear 
guilty before the magistrate — he is not mistaken. In 
selecting policemen, rather strength of body than any 
moral or mental qualification is looked for. And the 
theory seems to be that one cannot afford to pay for 
intelligent men, where merely the liberty and good 
name of the individual is concerned. Here again, 
“ better that the particular person should suffer than that 
too much money should be paid;” especially as the 
Police are not likely to be hard upon the upper-Castes. 
To these they can be conveniently deaf, dumb, and 
blind. 

One wonders, looking along the interminable extent 
of mean streets, to see the endless shops. It looks as if 
everybody had something to sell ; and where the buyers 
can be who knows? You may watch some of these 
places for hours, and you will not see a soul enter or 
depart. Look in, and very likely some old man or 
woman is drowsing away, if in summer time, behind a 


264 


LONDON. 


paltry litter of old stuffs, the whole not worth a year’s 
living ; or, if in winter, half-perishing with cold, waiting 
for customers who never come. And these waifs [dri- 
tze] of a forgotten trade linger on, in old age, eating 
hungrily the husks of former traffic, which new ways 
have destroyed. London is an enormous shop with a 
West End of dwellings; these, however, not by any 
means shopless. It is a marvel. Thousands and thou- 
sands of mean shops, yet supporting the tens of thou- 
sands which live by them. One asks how any fair 
profit can do this. You will see a display of rusty 
goods, of tawdry ornaments, of dirty books, of mere 
rubbish ; and if you venture inside you will hurry out 
again. The creatures inside are as unattractive as the 
wares. Do you believe these are places of honest 
dealing ? 

But in what are called respectable tradesmen’s 
houses, profits must be little short of plunder — the busi- 
ness is so small. Yet the English Barbarians, of certain 
classes, seem to take to this mode of living upon the 
community with a hawk-like keenness. The difference 
between the price of an article of food, whether bought 
first hands, or after it has passed through these inter- 
mediaries, is a difference as of one-half to the whole — 
that is, the price is doubled ! 

These petty tradesmen glean their livings from the 
poor, who cannot help themselves ; but, in truth, the 
common feeling is on all hands, “ Let us plunder, and 
be plundered.” It is merely a question of securing a 
good share. 

London, therefore, not wanting in a certain air of 


LONDON. 


265 


greatness in some parts, really expresses very clearly 
the traits of the English Barbarians. It is gloomy, 
morose, huckstering, repulsive. Huge it is, like the 
English barbaric power; but incoherent, uninformed, 
unlovely, without the beauty of refinement. 

Still, in the purpose of the Sovereign Lord, one may 
guess the use of this great centre of barbaric influence 
— it is to beat down the distant and worse tribes beyond 
the great seas. As one sort of predatory creature de- 
vours another, so these Barbarians destroy worse types 
of men than themselves, and prepare the way for 
human advancement. Whether, however, they shall 
themselves ever emerge into a noble life, is a curious 
inquiry. 

The West End is that part where the High-Castes 
reside when in the Metropolis. It is the seat of 
Palaces, of Courts, of better built streets, and of the best 
Parks and ornamental grounds. Here the Theatres 
and revelries are; the great dinners, the Pouts, the 
Dances, and the stir of High life. Here, in the Parks, 
the grand dames air themselves, their poodles, and ser- 
vants. Here, on horseback, they astonish onlookers by 
the display of figure, and, on foot, by a show of head- 
dress and draperies, and bright eyes and fashionable 
forms. Luxury, idleness, show, frivolity, mock the 
wretchedness which despairs and dies, or robs and 
cheats in not distant back slums [gna-zti]. Still, along 
these costly rows of equipages and richly-attired women 
and men, on whose persons may be single gems which 
would give bread to thousands, one looks in vain for 
what would give a human and pleasing touch. If you 


266 


LONDON. 


see a lovely face, it might as well be at a funeral. The 
whole spectacle is cold and lifeless ; the horses only 
have animation, and they are kept down to the tamest 
possible step. The world cannot show finer animals, 
nor wealthier owners, nor more luxurious idlers, nor 
more unattractive human beings. Joy is unknown, 
and any touch of natural sentiment, along the long line 
of devotees of wearisome Time-killers, may be looked 
for in vain. 

When I first walked about the streets, I found myself 
the victim of Barbarian insolence. My dress attracted 
rude notice, and I soon adopted the common garb. 
This, however, only partially removed observation — for 
my features were different. However, a longer use 
accustomed me to rudeness, and enabled me to let it 
pass unnoticed. One part of the town, particularly, 
appeared to be infested with women, who accosted me 
and insisted upon walking with me. I could not for 
some time understand this ; but since, I have been in- 
formed. The neighbourhood of the Theatres — in fact, 
many parts of the West End — are the haunts of these 
poor creatures, many of whom seem to be but little 
more than children. On one occasion a well-dressed 
young girl, as I was leaving the Play, smilingly spoke 
to me, and asked the time ! I took out my watch, which 
was worn in my fob, and holding it up to the gaslight 
to see the hour, it was snatched from my hand. I 
merely caught sight of a person vanishing round a 
corner. The girl exclaimed, “What a pity,” and put 
her hand gently on my arm. I, however, moved away 
quickly ; but all trace of watch and robber was gone, and 


LONDON. 


267 


the young woman too ! This would not happen to me 
now. I did not then know of the state of things in 
the centre of Christendom ! Of course I was robbed on 
several occasions, and in many ways, and shortly found 
that I must look upon everybody as a rascal, as the 
English do. 

But perhaps there is nothing in London so exaspera- 
ting as the Lodying-house keeper. This is a creature not 
unknown to other regions, but reserved for its most 
perfect and exquisite finish for the Metropolis of the 
World (as the English like to call London). 

This being starves you, freezes you, cheats you, waits 
upon you, steals from you. lies to you, flatters you, and 
backbites you ;* reads your private papers, has keys for 
all your boxes and drawers, and a complete inventory of 
all your effects. She chooses from your handkerchiefs, 
smoothes her hair with your brushes, scents it with 
your perfumes, “ makes herself beautiful ” at your toilet. 
She examines your boots, and finds a pair which you 
“will never miss,” for her James. She brushes your 
trowsers, and takes care of any loose change. She waits 
at your table, counts the oranges, and thinks she will 
try one. 

When you ask for that pie , &he has given it to the 
dog — “ I thought you were done with it, Sir.” She cracks 
a window pane, and charges it to you in the bill. She 
eats your bread, drinks your beer, tastes your wine ; and 
charges you a shilling for a pinch of salt. She demands 
pay for coals you have not burned, and for gas you have 
not used. She gives you sheets that are worn out, and 
makes you pay the price of new when you stick your 


268 


LONDON. 


toes through them. She demands the wash for cover- 
ings which you have not soiled, and for tidys that were 
never tidy. She has a lot of cracked cheap glasses and 
crockery, which she makes you pay “ for cracking, Sir ” 
— as she has already made others many times before. 
In truth, these are invaluable to her — “she get new 
ones, not she ” ! (as she says to her drudge of all work). 

You pay for clean table-linen and towels weekly 
(and weakly) — but if you ask for a fresh table-cloth, “ I 
have a friend to dine — you get it, and a charge for it 
extra. If you intimate that you could not have had 
“ so much butter ” — you are reminded that you are 
speaking to a lady, who has been accustomed to have 
gentlemen in her rooms ! 

You sleep on “ hobbles,” and are blotched in a curious 
manner. You hint to the servant that you have seen 
something as well as felt ; but “ nothing of that sort was 
ever in my house.” At last, when you find it quite 
impossible to satisfy the ever-increasing rapacity, you 
“ think you will leave.” You are very forcibly reminded 
that you are bound to “ a month’s notice, Sir.” And, 
happy to get off any way, this you waive and pay for. 
Nor do you flinch when, on exhibiting the final account, 
“ my lady ” has recorded a list of casualties, very start- 


ling 


Towel-horse broken 
Chair-back ditto 
Door-plate cracked ... 
Table-cover stained 
Carpet ditto 
Walls injured by boxes 


(Mental notes: — ) 
always broken, 
ditto, 
ditto, 
old. 

old, worthless, 
old knocks. 


LONDON. 


269 


Candlestick broken . . . servant. 

Postages, and servant for letters (paid). 

Blacking, salt, and pepper (omitted and always charged). 

Wash of coverings, toilets, and counterpanes. 

You glance at the foot, pay it. You think all is done. 
But “ my lady ” expects a “ slight gratuity, Sir ; not for 
myself, of course, but for Nancy l” I should add that 
this harpy is a devotee, and is as punctual at prayers as 
at prey ! 

One, however, soon finds a change of place is no 
change of fate. The pickings and stealings may take a 
little different form, but the result is the same. The 
only thing is, to get for your money cleanliness and 
comfort ; estimate the whole cost, and consider the 
plunder a part of it — for you will not escape. The 
Lodging House is only typical. All are preyed upon 
and prey upon. It is the rule of barbaric life, and 
Caste makes it inevitable. The low think it no robbery 
to get a share of the plunder enjoyed by the rich. 
There is, in the general state of things, a rough instinct 
of justice in it — only innocent people also suffer. 

If you live in one of the huge buildings called 
Hotels, you are no better off. Here, every mouthful 
is counted; you cannot breathe (so to say) without 
paying for it. If a waiter look at you, he will expect a 
gratuity [ti-tin]. 

After you have paid everything which an experienced 
and greedy ingenuity can think of, as you are about to 
leave, the servants will obsequiously open and stand at 
doors, hold and brush your hat (already brushed bare), 
catch up some trifle, and generally get in your way, to 


270 


LONDON. 


force gratuities out of your good-nature. If you, at 
length, reach the vehicle called for you, before you can 
open the door of it, up will start, as from the ground, 
a miserable creature, who intercepts your motion, 
adroitly opening the door for you, and then, when you 
are seated, stands staring directly into your face, with 
his hand still on the door-handle, awaiting a gratuity. 
You have buttoned up your coat, your gloves are on, it 
is cold ; but you cannot refuse the demand. 

You are finally off ; you arrive at your new quarters. 
Before you can wink, up starts a first cousin [tw-in-ti] 
of him who has just stared at you, who, in his turn, 
seizes hold of the door-handle, and shows in every 
motion that he has seized you too, at least to the extent 
of sixpence. You step out ; he touches his hair (he has 
no hat) ; you try not to see him ; but impossible — the 
pennies must come. 

But why attempt to delineate these endless methods 
of prey. The poor wretches who live by these miserable 
shifts are innumerable and everywhere. One does not 
begrudge the pennies, but detests the nuisance, and the 
debasement which it demonstrates. 

London is an undesirable place of residence, unless 
for the rich, and to them only for a few months in the 
year. But it is full of objects of study to him who cares 
to know anything of barbaric life, orwho wishes to investi- 
gate the records and literature of the Western tribes. 

All great cities are much alike ; it is the different 
aspect of human life which is the noticeable thing. 
Unless, on the whole, a great city exhibits humanity in 
a pleasing condition, it is a failure, however rich it may 


LONDON. 


271 


be. London, which was described one hundred and 
fifty years ago as a “ Province of Houses,” certainly 
contains an immense population bare of attractive fea- 
tures. Ho doubt much must be put down to climate and 
fuel. The former is foggy, cold, dark, and disheartening for 
the larger part of the year ; and the latter, by its foul gas 
[ptrut] and smoke, makes the fog and cloudy air so obscure 
as to give an unearthly gloom. The poor feel not only 
the gnawing of hunger but the nipping frost, unrelieved 
by any smiles in earth or sky. The mud of the streets 
is like a nasty grease, and one walks or crosses the ways 
in terror of befoulment. The clothes and the face are 
exposed not only to this, but also to the defiling smoke 
which drops a steady drizzle [kri-tze] of black atoms 
upon everything. 

Poor shivering creatures — men, women, and children 
— are at street crossings and other places, incessantly 
sweeping away so much of the mud as may enable 
pedestrians to pass with less weight of nastiness to 
boots or skirts. These, often very old, or lame, or half- 
starved and ragged, piteously expect a penny. I have 
often watched the little girl or boy, or old tottering 
man, and seen the hurrying passers, on and on, the 
stream ceaseless, yet have rarely seen a single penny 
given. I have sometimes put in my outside pocket 
some' copper coins to have at hand ; and when I have 
given to one of these sweepers, the thanking look was 
well worth the petty trouble ; it also showed clearly 
that the gift was not too common. How these victims 
of poverty live, where they cover their misery from the 
wintry cold, I cannot guess. I used to notice one very 


272 


LONDON. 


old and almost imbecile who swept at a place where I 
crossed frequently. He would stand motionless under 
a thick, scrubby tree which stood just at the corner of 
the streets, clinging to its shelter, slight as it was, for 
protection from wind and rain, and barely touching his 
head with his finger with a bow when people passed. 
Occasionally, slowly, and with limbs stiff and back 
hardly bent to toil, grubbing across the way with his 
muddy broom, but never giving other sign of vitality. 
I missed his silent figure one day ; another wretch had 
stepped into his heritage, [qua-ti] and stood beneath the 
scrubby tree — the old, silent, patient sufferer had found 
a pauper’s grave at last. 

Akin to these (indeed cousins-german) are the old 
creatures who sit at street corners, or by the way-sides, 
selling trifles, which nobody buys. Through the long, 
cold days, huddled into a heap, and looking like a pile 
of rags with a red face a-top, motionless, will one of 
these sit, bleering and winking with rheumy eyes at 
the juiceless fruit, or handful of nuts, or ancient cakes, 
or nasty sweets, displayed upon her little board. If by 
chance you happen to curiously turn your eyes upon 
this strange object, some start of vitality appears, but 
vanishes as you pass on. Who buys, who eats ; what 
can possibly come of this strange traffic ? Yet you 
will see these human things, day after day, sitting, one 
would think, despairingly, awaiting the buyers who 
never come. How fine a thing it w T ould be for the idle 
rich, who like a new sensation, to go about the streets, 
accompanied by a servant, and buy of these patient 
crones [ko-tse] a good part of their daily store ! 


LONDON. 


273 


When I first walked about the great places of the 
city, I was surprised to see very many miserable 
men punished (as I supposed) by the Cangue. They 
had suspended to their necks two boards, one in front 
and one behind. Upon these were curious devices. 
Horses, women, great fires burning, ships blowing up, 
and the like. Perpetually walking to and fro, just to 
the measured distance, and never once sitting down, 
never once speaking, nor being spoken to, these crea- 
tures, thus accoutred, walked dismally right in the 
garbage of the gutters. Ho one, by any chance, ever 
noticed them, nor by any chance did they ever do other 
than, with slow and limping gait, keep up the march 
of doleful dismalness ! For long I puzzled over these 
ragged apparitions ; after many moons I found that they 
were merely stalking advertisements ! [muun-shi]. 

I might give many other illustrations of life in 
London, differing from what is known to us. The human 
dregs are truly dreadful. Their haunts are indescribable. 
Many settle upon the oozy and slimy river bank, when 
the tide is out, seeking anything which perchance may 
have been washed up. Wading in a filth which covers 
the feet and befouls the whole tattered creature, this 
being, nicknamed mud-lark [pho-ul-sti], bcomes an out- 
cast to all decency. Others prowl about the ash-lieaps, 
and sift and pick over any heaps of rubbish, carefully 
gathering from garbage, bones, rags, anything which 
can give the merest pittance. It must be certain that 
human degradation can go no deeper when to debasing 
and starving poverty is added drunkenness, loathsome 
brutality, violence, and crime. 

T 


274 


LONDON. 


Possibly the greatest city of the Barbarians is not 
worse than the worst of some portions of a great city 
with ns ; nor should I refer emphatically to the wretch- 
edness of London were it not for the boastful ignorance 
manifested by Barbarian writers and literati. These 
always speak of the preeminence of English civilization 
— of the grand and humanizing influence of their true 
religion — of the wealth, the liberty, and the happiness 
of the people ! No other tribe is so humane, so just, so 
brave, so wise, so free, so prosperous, so contented and. 
happy ! 

In the face of these declarations, which are to be met 
with on all sides, London is a marvel! Nor London 
only, other cities are more marvellous ; one wonders 
what the standard must be, by which is tested this 
boasted preeminence. If by other Western Barbarian 
life, and compared to that, truly superior, then wliat 
must be the condition at large of the Western tribes ? 

There is a nuisance common enough with us about 
the streets ; and in London it takes every shape. I 
mean street music. Besides the troops, which infest 
public places, startling you with a crashing outburst of 
noise from many brass instruments, there are mendi- 
cants, of all ages and both sexes. The halt, the blind, 
come singing in the most doleful manner, unaccom- 
panied ; and others making the night hideous with 
squeaking wind-pipes, or noisy things of some sort. 
After annoying you for a long time, one of these will 
perhaps boldly knock at your door, and demand a gra- 
tuity. Some of these creatures blacken themselves, and 
appear in the courts and squares singing and playing 


LONDON. 


275 


not too decently. Some poor woman, with babes in a 
kind of basket pushed along on wheels, will try to gain 
sympathy and pennies by screaming out some woful 
strain which nobody comprehends, and which grates 
upon the ear like rasping iron. Sometimes a miserable 
wretch, shivering with cold, will stand before the bright, 
warm doors of a drinking place, and sing his feeble 
note of woe. The most dreadful objects will be those 
horribly deformed, who, crooked and distorted out of 
human shape, contrive to get along in some strange 
device of wagon, pushed by their own stumps of hands 
or feet. Generally these affect to play upon some- 
thing, no matter what, and drag on an existence too 
wretched to think of. 

But why dwell upon these lowest strata of human 
existence. It shows out on all hands. Among the 
gilded idlers of the West End, on the very porticoes of 
grand Temples. Luxury and pride drive, with mien 
unconscious of human want and woe ; unconscious of 
“the common lot” awaiting all; almost over the very 
bodies of these to whom life is so deep a darkness. 

London in its sparkling splendours laughs and makes 
merry. Within its great Parks, in the summer months, 
musical birds make the air melodious, and flowering 
shrubs, and fine trees and verdure, give beauty and rest 
to thousands of the poor — but not to the lowest. These 
slink away into the fouler haunts, or spread themselves 
over the green country, seeking new sources of pitiful 
gain ! In the mid-summer the best of London looks 
almost cheerful ; and a sky more pure, and a sun-light 
which, though not brilliant, is soft and warm, render 


276 


LONDON. 


life tolerable to tlie poor. For tlie rich and idle, they go 
out of the City and leave it, as they say, empty — for 
those who remain are nobodies [cham-tsi]. Yes, the 
millions left to toil are nothing. Still, the magnificence 
of the High-Caste flowers immediately upon that toiling 
mass — from it grows all the spreading splendour which 
regards it not. The glowing flame cares nothing for 
the black coal; nor is the money soiled which passes 
through the hands of despised indigence. London gay 
and brilliant, glows and glitters upon its dung-heap — as 
a luminous vapour flashes and flits over a putrescent 
carcass. 

Perhaps one should not be too critical, nor expect 
other than these inconsistencies in humanity. Misery 
will be largely its own cause. Great populations do 
not herd together without shocking inequalities of con- 
dition ; yet, the reflection will arise, Is not the boast of 
refinement and civilization too much for patience — would 
not humility be better ? The boast means self-content 
— humility would mean a steady work for improvement. 
One sees not, nor really cares to see ; the other sees and 
feels, and wishes to remove what gives a sense of humi- 
liation and of pain. 

Splendid London may disregard the blackness of the 
East End (as the poorest quarter is called), and think 
itself a good Christian to shun it as a place of horror ; 
but, to my pagan wisdom, it seems indispensable to 
devote that money and energy to the civilization of the 
English Barbarians, which is now sent to “ the benighted 
heathen .” These, no doubt, have the poor and the degraded, 
the black spots of moral imbecility ; nor would one 


LONDON. 


277 


object to any really benevolent enterprise, though not 
too rational. But the missionary [kan-te] spirit rises 
so distinctly from an ignorant self-sufficiency and blind- 
ness, a merely superstitious notion of a thing to be done 
as any rite or ceremony is to be done — for the good of 
the doer — that it is impossible to have much respect for 
it. Then, too, the whole thing shapes into a machine, 
by the working of which men are to live and get honours 
and places. If a truly grand benevolence moved the 
people, it would be impossible to overlook the Heathen 
at home. 


278 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

It is the business of a wise man (as our illustrious 
Confutzi and Menzi say) to seek the conditions of the 
visible forms of things — whether the things be those 
which we see, or only those which take form in the 
mind. The conditions are what the Barbarians call 
laws. We see that the use of a certain earth will enrich 
some soils, and impoverish others ; we examine into- 
the cause; we try to discover the conditions which 
make this difference. We know that, generally and 
broadly, the elements are the same, but they are dif- 
ferently combined. The Western Barbarians are of 
the same race with ourselves — inherently the general 
nature is the same. What difference of combination 
of similar elements lias produced results so dissimilar ? 

In the mighty East, where civilization goes back into 
the most distant and dim antiquity, the laws which 
underlie organized governments and customs, and which 
give form and life to communities, are very different, 
and sometimes antagonistic. It is certain, therefore, 
that man, really the same everywhere, has, in the course 
of ages, evolved from his own and surrounding nature 
very different forms of social life in the East and in the 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. * 27i> 

"West. Man and nature radically the same, have, in 
different conditions, grown and put forth very dissi- 
milar shapes of growth. The tree and the fruit are 
rooted in similar soil, have grown in similar air, sun, 
and rain. Even the trees are not wholly unlike, nor 
the fruit ; yet, most unlike, when duly considered ; and, 
when regarded with a view to usefulness and to perpe- 
tuation, one may demand the axe, and the other only the 
nice pruning-knife [quin-tse]. But a difference so great 
implies a different seed-germ — not necessarily ; for, 
from the . same germ, one may have a bitter, even a 
poisonous fruit, which finer culture can make sweet and 
healthful. 

If we assume, then, the same germ, whence so great 
diversity ? In my poor mind, when, among the Bar- 
barians, sad and bewildered by the disorder, confusion, 
and complexity, this question tediously presented itself 
— “Is man a creature of chance — is there no perfect 
rule?” I would say, “Is his growth fortuitous like 
plants, beginning with similar germs and yet dissimilar 

so, growing according to the hidden differences and 

the differing circumstances ? Is there no common 
standard — no fixed measure — no absolute truth ?” But, 
in my poor thought, I also said, “ The Sovereign Lord 
lives in his children, and moral truth (divine illumina- 
tion) must be. It is simply true , and can be no other. 
Human forms of social being must be measured by it ; 
and, however complexed and confused, are so measured , 
and will not long exist if radically inconsistent. Yet 
these forms may be bad without being wholly rootless, 
and grow deformed , strange, and noxious. 


280 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


Iii looking upon tlie disorderly and complex features 
of Barbarian life, two things prominently strike my 
poor mind. One is, a restless activity , accompanied with 
love of personal distinction and admiration of strength. 
The other, is the singular 'position of 'women. To the 
former, may be charged the selfish greed, the callous 
indifference, the delight in forays and plunder. 

To the latter, that aspect of dissolute disorder, that 
curious complexity of ideas and principles, which render 
the whole Barbarian Society a marvel — I liked to have 
said a disgust — to one unaccustomed to it. 

The position of women, as it affects the family , no 
doubt has an all-pervading influence — if that position 
be wrong, we have, at once, a grand source of evil. 

How far the great Superstition , super-imposed upon 
the olden Idolatry (dark and cruel) may have deepened 
the shades of Barbaric nature, and strengthened its old 
admiration of force and rapine, may be only surmised. 
Certain it is that the Jewish Jali is not unlike the 
Odin of these tribes ; and (as I have said) the gentle 
Christ- god, himself a Jew worshipper of Jali, has been 
received only as subordinate; in fact, a Sacrifice by 
Jali made to himself to appease himself ! A character, 
in fine, not strong enough for these fierce tribes. 

We have the government and the family resting upon 
a different basis in the West from what they rest upon 
in the East. In the West, it is difficult to say if there 
be any ride upon which either securely reposes. In the 
East, the ride is as clear, and as clearly recognized, and 
as undoubtedly obeyed, , as any rule can be. The exist- 
ence of the Sovereign Lord is not more certainly 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 281 

admitted, and his authority not more implicitly sub- 
mitted to. This is the rule of Obedience. 

But aside from principles which control comprehen- 
sive forms, like the Family and Government, there are 
secondary growths, usages (perhaps not referable to any 
marked rule), which have had powerful influence. For 
instance, the mode of trying persons suspected of Crime, 
appears to my poor mind to be very fantastic and irra- 
tional. The Barbarians, however, boast of the supe- 
riority of their way over all other tribes, ancient or 
modern. 

When a crime has been committed, and some one, sus- 
pected, has been arrested, he is brought before a Judge, 
whose duty it is to see if there be good reasons for the 
arrest. The very first thing, we should think, would 
be to ask the accused to give any explanation he may 
wish. Not at all ; he is told to say nothing ; for if he 
do it will be recorded and may go to his hurt. How 
to his hurt unless he be guilty ? Now it may be that 
the accused could, at once, explain everything — but no 
— the officers who have made the arrest wish to work 
out a theory of their own; and the Judge, listening to 
these officers, who are uneducated, rude, and often at 
work for a large prize, commits the accused to prison 
to be tried over again, really, at a future day, 
by some other Judge. Meantime everybody who, 
upon the theory of the officers, is imagined to know 
anything, is ordered to give security that they will 
appear at the next trial, and say what they know. 
And if a witness cannot give this security (frequently 
the case with the poor), he is also thrust into prison. In 


282 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


this manner persons, who have been so unfortunate as 
to he fixed upon by these ignorant officers, are treated 
like the accused, and put to great inconvenience and 
sometimes suffering, either in themselves, or their 
families, or affairs. This goes on — the next trial is 
postponed, delay after delay, whilst the officers are 
working out their theory ; and finally the accused is 
discharged and the witnesses also, the whole disgraceful 
proceeding being a blunder , in which innocent people 
have been punished as criminal , and the Criminal has 
escaped ! A natural and simple examination of the 
accused, when first brought before the Judge, would 
have saved all this loss, suffering, and shame ! Such 
an absurdity can only be to the advantage of the 
guiltv ! 

A man may be caught under circumstances of guilt so 
certain that there is no rational hypothesis of innocence. 
Yet, with the very blood and property of the murdered 
perhaps upon him, surprised, red-handed in the very 
act, he will be treated as if he were merely suspect; will 
be cautioned to say nothing; will have every chance and 
opportunity to escape by reason of the unaccountable 
mode of procedure. For he is still innocent. Such 
is the hypothesis; and disregarding the obvious and 
simple way of asking for an explanation consistent 
with innocence (when guilt would be doubly manifest), 
the other ridiculous hypothesis is maintained, if possible, 
and the whole community and many innocent people 
are afflicted and tortured with the most minute and 
painful investigations (having perhaps no sort of rela- 
tion to the matter), to see if some doubt may not arise 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 283 

somehow . , not as to the guilt, but as to some parts of the 
case as imagined to be ! 

Thus, theories of guilt are to be established when the 
fact is patent , if one will simply look at the proofs 
immediately at hand ! 

In this case just supposed, too, there is no trial at all 
of the man so clearly seen to be guilty. Twelve men 
are convened by a sort of inferior Judge, first to see 
how the dead man came to be dead— it is certain as 
anything can well be ! Yet this kind of Court must 
go through the long, tedious, and painful inquiry, how 
the man died. Witnesses are dragged from home, from 
their pursuits, ruined may be ; the whole community 
horrified, and the twelve men kept from home and busi- 
ness, and shocked by the most disgusting examinations 
of the dead ! This whole process seems rather designed 
to give fees and business to the petty Judge and 
officers who compose this singular tribunal. 

But when this sham Court has got through, the ac- 
cused meantime, and the witnesses, are still awaiting 
the real inquiry, which may be put off for many weeks. 

When, after tedious delays, tiventy-four petty judges, 
assisted by an officer, having made up their minds to 
formally charge the accused with the crime, he is 
brought before a Judge, who is now for the first time 
to really try the man, another curious thing occurs. 
The Judge is not trusted alone to proceed — he must 
have twelve little Judges, and several Lawyers, to assist 
him. The little judges are the Jury, not selected for 
knowledge nor excellency, but any twelve men who 
can be readily got. Generally they are very poor re- 


284 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


presentatives of even the average wisdom and morality. 
They know nothing of law, nor of the Court, nor are 
they in the least competent to undergo the complex, 
tedious, and artificial trial to which they are about to 
be put, as well as the accused. However, the business 
of these twelve is not to look directly at the man and 
at the clear evidence against him — which might be 
within even their competency — but they are sworn 
upon the Sacred Writings and by Jail (under severe 
penalties) to try the accused according to the Law and 
the evidence. How, the Lawyers and the Judge deter- 
mine as to the law, and the twelve men must obey 
them as to that — the twelve, however, are to determine 
as to the evidence. This means — they are to see and 
hear the witnesses, examine the objects of proof (which 
may take many days) ; keep all the statements, con- 
flicting, confused, or other ; hear all that the Lawyers 
may say ; watch the demeanour of the witnesses, and of 
the accused — and they must take the Case as presented 
and offered to them, however absurd much of it may be 
— and, finally, after all, they are not to take this Evi- 
dence (as it is called) to judge it for themselves — no, they 
must take it under the direction of the Judge. They are 
sworn to try according to the Law and the evidence ; 
but evidence means leged evidence ! and the Judge (aided 
by the Lawyers) directs the twelve men as to what is 
evidence. Under these conditions, one may judge as to 
the usefulness of this Jury — unless as a contrivance 
for the torturing of the innocent and the clearing of the 
guilty! 

I was present and examined this matter — for from 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 285 

the common boast of this excellent Jury-mode of trial , 
I wished to see with my own mind. 

At length, the twelve men being confined, so that 
they cannot escape, in a sort of box ; the Judge and the 
Lawyers being in their places, attired in the absurd wigs 
and black gowns [phe-ty-kos] (somebody once whis- 
pered in my ear, black-guards) [kon-di-to-ri] ; the ac- 
cused is ordered to stand up. The charge of murder is 
read ; — confused by so much barbarous jargon, that no 
one but the Judge and the Lawyers understand it — in 
fact, oftentimes do not understand it — and the criminal 
often escapes trial because the proper jargon has not 
been used. This mixed tongue is the only one allowed 
in these trials, and must be taken from the fountain of 
Wisdom (as the Law book is called containing it). The 
speech is uncertain, only known to the Lawyers ; and a 
mistake spoils the whole charge. Well, after more or 
less wrangling among the Lawyers, the charge finally 
stands. I must explain ; there are two sides of Lawyers 
— one (hired to do so), by every means in its power 
tries to get the accused discharged, and is helped to do 
this by all the machinery of the trial — the other merely 
watches the proceedings, and sees that they are not too 
absolutely controlled by the other side. The latter, 
also, open and state the matter, and conduct it; but 
neither side works simply to obtain the truth. On the 
side of the accused, if guilty, the truth is not wanted ; 
and, on the other side, there is no interest in the matter 
which greatly moves. But the interest for the accused 
may be not merely to gratify, in some cases, powerful 
relatives, but to obtain as large a sum of money as the 


286 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS, 


Lawyers can get — which, where life is at stake, may he 
all the accused has now, or may, if discharged, acquire. 
In fact, in cases of robbery, the Lawyers for the accused 
may have received their compensation from the very 
plunder ! 

The accused says to the charge either Guilty or Not 
Guilty ! This is a mere form. Then the names of the 
twelve men are called over, to see that none have got 
away — for it is a hateful and disgusting business often, 
wherein they instinctively feel they really have no 
function — and yet enforced upon them, often to their 
actual great loss and suffering. 

Now the scene fairly opens. The twelve little judges 
in their box ; the big one sitting aloft, with pig-tail-ear- 
iiapper wig ; the Lawyers in pig-tail wigs and gowns ; 
the officers of the Court; the witnesses, cowering and 
afraid ; the accused in his high, strong cage (or box) ; 
and the spectators, friends, relatives, associates of the 
witnesses and of the accused — women and men — crowd- 
ing in the dark corners of the Hall of trial. 

The Lawyers call and examine the witnesses. These 
•are not permitted to tell the truth in their own way at 
all. They are sworn upon the Sacred Writings , upon 
pain of penalties of the Law, and the dreadful fear of 
the awful Jah and Hell, to speak the truth , the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth ! Now, the truth which 
they are to speak must be that sort of truth which the 
Lawyers and the Judge determine upon to hear— not 
by any means that truth which the witness, in his sim- 
plicity, is about to utter ! Here, then, an honest and 
conscientious witness is likely to be at once bewildered ; 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


287 


but a callous, self-possessed one, who does not intend to 
say one word more than he can help, finds himself 
doing exactly what the Lawyers and the Court under- 
stand by the oath — that is, to speak for the one side or 
the other ; not for truth ! 

Consider the position of a witness, perhaps a timid 
woman, or an inexperienced person, never before called 
upon to take the awful oath , never before in such a 
place ! Confronted, made to stand up, thrust without 
respect, sometimes rudely and with positive disrespect ; 
treated, in fact, as if a party to the crime, though per- 
fectly ignorant of anything excepting of some chance 
' link required in the theory of the charge — thrust forward 
into the gaze of the Judge, of the whole assembly. 
Every eye is fastened upon the trembling witness. 
She is ordered in a rough tone to hold up her hand, to 
take the oath, to kiss the Sacred Writings ! What with 
the crowd, the novel and painful position, by this time 
the poor woman, when asked a question, can scarcely 
speak. The old, half-deaf Judge, turns his awful be- 
wigged head to her, raises his ear-flapper and says, 
“ Speak louder, witness ; I can’t hear you.” An officer 
Pawls out, “ Silence!” and, not unlikely, the poor witness 
fairly collapses, faints, and she is allowed to be seated. 

The Lawyers examine the witnesses, and if one begins 
to say something very damaging, if possible, will inter- 
rupt him; or, by and by, will insinuate some vile 
charge against him, to destroy his character with the 
hearers— not that there be any truth in the insinua- 
tion, but merely to effect the purpose of a vile minion 
paid to defeud, perhaps, a notorious offender ! 


288 SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

Thus the trial proceeds ; every effort is made on the 
side of the accused (which is the active side) to mis- 
lead, to confuse, to bewilder. The Law, read from big 
books, is constantly referred to, now to stop a witness 
in what he is about to say ; now to get something 
already said scratched off from the minds of the twelve 
men ; and now to take the opinion of the Judges as to 
whether this or that should, or should not, be heard by 
the Jury. 

All these things go on day after day, not at all 
because there is any doubt as to the guilt of the ac- 
cused, but because by these confused and interminable 
proceedings, the Lawyers who act for him expect to get 
him discharged — and discharged, declared by the twelve 
men to be not guilty ! This is the great point ; for, if 
this occur, it does not matter at all that the accused 
himself confess to the crime, on no account can he ever 
be arrested again for the offence ! “But how, when 
the proofs of guilt are present and so certain, can the 
Lawyers expect to get the twelve men to go against 
their very senses ? ” To answer this is to show the 
nature of the Jury system very plainly. 

When all the wranglings and speeches and Law- 
readings of the Lawyers have at last ended ; when the 
Judge — who has in the course of the trial already 
loaded the twelve with all sorts of instructions as to what 
they are to keep in mind as legal evidence, and what 
they are to leave out of mind — has made a long and 
confused speech (often interrupted by the Lawyers) re- 
capitulating those parts of the conflicting mass of 
evidence which, and only which, is evidence, and has 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


289 


told them the manner in which this evidence must he 
applied to the charge ; has finally told them that the 
•crime charged must he the precise crime laid down in 
the Law-hooks by that name, and none other ; and that 
having found beyond all doubt that that crime, upon 
the legal evidence, has been committed, then has the 
accused committed the crime so defined, and so proved ? 
To be certain of this, the accused must not only be 
found to have done it, but he must have known that he 
was doing it — that is, he must have been sound in 
mind. And if in any of these particulars there be any 
doubt, the accused must be acquitted ; and further, 
every one of the twelve must agree — if any one with- 
hold his assent, then the prisoner cannot be declared to 
be guilty ! 

With all these clear and simple directions (!) as to 
how they are to use their minds, an officer leads the 
twelve into a strong-room, and fastens them in ! to con- 
sider their verdict (as it is called). Not to consider 
simply and directly upon the plain evidence of their 
senses, and according to reason ordinarily used, but to 
consider their Verdict — a technical, artificial affair, made 
by the Lawyers, and only fit for their minds — if even 
they could do anything satisfactory to an honest man 
with it ! 

The twelve are locked in and guarded by an officer ; 
deprived of food, of rest, of any recreation; perhaps 
already exhausted from the hair-splitting [di-do-tzi] and 
intricate directions and proceedings. They are Sworn 
to give their verdict according to the Law (first) and 
the Evidence (second). The evidence, however, being 

u 


290 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


all law. Then, too, they are to say either Guilty , or 
not guilty ; and no more. 

Now, the Lawyer’s expectation may become verified. 
There is no sort of doubt in any of the twelve that the 
accused is a horrid wretch, and that he is guilty. But 
one man has got hold of an idea, based upon something 
said by the Judge, or perhaps only the suggestion of 
his own mind ; and think of the vanity, the stupidity, 
the dishonesty, the mere indifference, the obstinacy, 
the excessive timidity, the weakness, which is likely 
to be in each of the twelve ; one man has got his opinion 
— it is a matter of conscience. The one man is suffi- 
cient. Nothing can move him. Hour after hour passes. 
Night comes on — hunger knocks at the stomach ; home 
is wanted ; business is exacting ; illness oppresses some, 
lassitude and sheer exhaustion overpower others — the 
one persists, only more obstinate by opposition — 
“The man no doubt is guilty, but I doubt if he be 
guilty according to law ! ” 

They cannot agree upon a verdict. The Judge and 
everybody else long since have gone to their homes and 
pleasures. They (the twelve) cannot escape unless they 
agree. To be sure, they may report to the Judge late 
on the next day that they cannot agree — only, how- 
ever, to receive new directions (!), and be sent back 
again and kept till they shall agree ! 

Human nature gives way. The one, strong and 
resolute, overpowers the eleven — or, rather, there have 
been only a part who would not have given over long 
ago. The fine maxim of English law — “ It is better that 
a thousand guilty escape than that one innocent suffer ” — 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


291 


turns the scale. There is a doubt — or something which 
looks like it — “ let the accused have the benefit of it ! ” 

Now, in this scene, I am taking it for granted that 
the twelve are really not dishonest — not one of them. 
But suppose one is, in secret, the determined friend of 
the accused ! 

Thus, the Verdict of the Jury (not the direct and 
honest opinion of twelve men in a rational and ordinary 
use of their minds) is recorded in the Court — Not 
guilty. And a murderer is at once discharged ; perhaps 
escorted with applause from the place by associates of 
his evil courses. Bestored to the community which 
doubts not his guilt, and which has been horrified, agi- 
tated, and oppressed by its frightful details ! It will 
be noticed how admirably everything, in this system, 
works to procure the escape of the guilty ; but it must 
not be overlooked that it falls with crushing weight 
upon the innocent. Simple and direct inquiry would 
generally clear him at once. But no — the theory in the 
minds of the officers is, that this innocency is a fraud ; 
and the whole machinery works just as irrationally as 
before ; because, the clear evidences of innocency are 
disregarded — the prisoner’s guilt is unreasonably as- 
sumed (contrary to the reverse legal maxim) by the 
officers ; and the whole crushing blow of this assumed 
guilt falls upon the innocent. He is thrust into prison ; 
torn from family, friends, human sympathy ; his actual 
trial is put off week after week, aye, month after month, 
whilst the officers hunt for what does not exist outside 
of their imaginations ; and, finally, from sheer shame, 
the poor victim is discharged before an actual tried — 


292 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


discharged, it may be ruined and for ever tainted with 
the foul and unjust suspicion. Or, perhaps, finally 
tried , escapes after a long, tedious and confused scene ; 
where the officers, anxious to convict one whom they 
have so long assumed to be guilty, contrive to throw 
just enough of suspicion upon the victim to render his life 
ever after insupportable ! However, he finally goes at 
large — ruined by enormous expenses, health shattered 
by confinement in prison, and tainted in character. The 
victim of an absurd system — for the verdict is, for him, 
irrational and cruel. If, in the other case, not guilty 
did not mean what the words imply — so, in this, the 
Jury give a no more meaning Verdict. Ho expression 
of any actual opinion. Ho sympathy, no regret ; nothing 
to reinstate the unfortunate victim of official stolidity 
and conceit. Nothing whatever ; not so much as any 
compensation for loss of time and money. Meantime, 
during this pursuit of the innocent, the real criminal 
has got safely away. 

How, this strange Jury system, boasted of as the 
Palladium of Liberty by the English Barbarians, strikes 
my poor mind as something very cumbersome, irra- 
tiona], and hurtful. The criminal class may well 
esteem it, for it seems exactly contrived to set the 
criminal at liberty, and to vex, terrify, annoy, and con- 
fuse everybody else. Witnesses themselves often fare 
more hardly than the actual criminal ! and Society is 
shocked by needless and reiterated exposures of every 
particular of dreadful things to no rational purpose — 
unless to give fees to Lawyers and a host of busy offi- 
cials, who live and fatten in these horrors. 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 293 

One might suspect that the whole machinery was 
contrived by the Lawyers (called criminal) to effect 
their purpose — that is, to protect their friends and sup- 
porters ; the numerous men, women, and half-grown 
youths swarming every where, and known as the criminal 
class. 

Another unjust custom is when a man offends a 
Judge, he is not at once brought before him for reproof 
and proper correction. No ; for his disrespect he is 
compelled to pay a fine [tsig] in money which may 
beggar his innocent family, or prevent his creditors 
from obtaining their dues ; or, unable to pay, must 
lie in prison till it be paid, or until released by the 
angry Judge. Thus making the innocent to suffer ! 
How much better in our Flowery Land, where dis- 
respectful conduct is at once reprimanded and, if the 
disrespect be marked, punished on the spot, in the pre- 
sence of the magistrate, and under his paternal 
direction. 

These may serve to illustrate usages not readily 
referable to any principle. They are rooted in old cus- 
toms, when general ignorance and universal poverty 
made the mass one, and when simplicity and direct- 
ness were natural. They are retained now in an artifi- 
cial and totally different state of society, for no better 
reason than the English Barbarians have for other 
abuses and enormities — they support the fungi which cling 
to them ! And the upper classes find their interests con- 
cerned in maintaining things as they are. The lower 
classes, too ignorant to see, are made to believe that 
nothing in human Wisdom and experience excels these 


294 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


very Laws and customs ! The Barbarian stolidity, too, 
in the well-to-do classes, supports these singular views 
as to the perfection of the Laws and system of adminis- 
tration. These classes constantly mistake this stolidity 
for solidity of character. When an evil is unmistak- 
able, none the less, instead of removing it, they say, 
“ Better bear those ills we have than fly to others we 
know not of ! ” (Quoting from their great Shakespeare.) 
But they do not stop to consider if it must necessarily 
follow that when one quits one ill he flies to another. 
As if one with a sore finger should refuse to apply any 
remedy to the finger for fear he might thereupon find 
a sore upon his leg ! 

Perplexed with these anomalous conditions, and by 
the stupid conceit and selfish indifference — the callous- 
ness and greed of the English Barbarians — I have won- 
dered if, after all, these men were not of a different kind 
[sty-plio].' Possibly, the Sovereign Lord and Eather of 
men, for wise purposes, may have created different sorts 
of men. Animals of the same type differ in swiftness, 
in strength, in intelligence. The Western Barbarians, 
though of the same type, may be inferior to our Illus- 
trious people in the moral and mental functions. For 
some purpose in Eternal Wisdom, the Almighty Lord 
has given them strength of body, energy, and an intel- 
lect sharp in matters of the instinct — which refers to the 
needs and passions of the body — thus, calculating, inge- 
nious in contrivance, and inordinately selfish ; but has 
not given them a large moral faculty, nor a broad and 
comprehensive mind. They are , therefore, incapable of 
improvement beyond a limited range. 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


295 


The Idolatry, and its horrible grotesqueness — the in- 
efficacy of the good in the character of the Christ-god, 
to influence the least abatement in the passion for 
Force ; the cold-blooded abuses, and the confusion of 
error and truth, may be thus accounted for. 

This, however, suggests a continuance of the evils 
which have fallen upon others. The All-wise sees where 
chastisement is due — and allows the Western Bar- 
barians their time. The offences of the East' need chas- 
tisement. The quickness, strength, and greed of the 
Barbarians, unchecked by moral considerations, make 
them the scourge of other distant peoples not possessing 
these qualities. The scourge is needed, otherwise it 
would not be permitted. There is a sufficiency of 
morality to prevent dissolution ; and the Western tribes 
will no doubt fulfil their appointed task. 

Still, in their present forms, rooted in a lower type of 
man, they must disappear ; not lost, but absorbed and 
blended in a better and nobler race. In the East, I sus- 
pect this highest type has always existed. Here, from 
immemorial ages and ages [tang-se-yan-se] the simple 
worship of the Sovereign Lord, and the divine faculty 
in man, have found their best expression, and taken a 
fixed and steadfast root in Government and in Society ! 

I may be mistaken, and it is possible that the Western 
tribes may be capable of attaining to this settled order 
— but it must be after very long moons and thousands 
of moons [lir-re-ty-sin], during which they shall have 
overturned and reformed existing laws and customs. 

I may refer shortly to some of the more striking 
of these, so curiously and radically different from 


29 G 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


our notions in the Central Kingdom, and so erroneously 
conceived in respect of the Divine Order. First.. 
— As to the character and worship of the Sovereign 
Lord of Heaven, and Father of men. Concerning the- 
errors in regard to the true character and proper 
recognition of the Heavenly Lord, I need scarcely say 
more. There are wise barbarians who do not differ from 
my poor thought as to the need of an entire reformation 
upon this whole matter, which underlies nearly all 
genuine improvement in morals, in government, and in 
“ Society.” 

Second . — As to Government. This must be seen to 
exist in the eternal order and nature of things, and not 
at all in any Contract [Kong-phu], “ social ” or other. 
Therefore whatever name be given to its Head, the 
Function is as inviolable as is the Divinity from which 
it comes. If this Head, however, be incapable of pro- 
perly representing the divine function, it does not 
therefore fail, but the nearest fit, in the established 
order acts. The Book of Bites and the great Council 
of the Illustrious, with us, see to this proper and 
orderly succession. No one is born to be absolutely 
Head — the Book of Bites and the Illustrious Calao , in 
our system, may see to it that the Head be fit for the 
due and divine order. Therefore, no one is born by 
right of birth to govern, nor to make, nor to administer, 
laws. Wisdom and knowledge only, may entitle their 
possessors to take rank among those to whom govern- 
ment and administration shall be committed ; and these 
may be changed, degraded, exalted, and removed as 
they conduct themselves, and not according to any 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


297 


family, nor hereditary distinction. Nor are Places 
created for the aggrandisement of any, continued for 
the benefit of families, nor, in any case, made heredi- 
tary. Places are for the whole, and those who fill them 
are placed there, in trust, for the good of the whole, 
and must properly discharge the trust. They are never 
for the individual — always for the State. 

Third . — As to the family. The Family being the 
Prototype [mo-dsi] of Government, should show the 
Divine order. It must be one ; not a divided, unin- 
telligent accident [phatsi]. It must have a clear 
faculty, and understand its true and vital significance 
— for the community is but an aggregation of families, 
and as these are so is the State. Then, to have dis- 
order there is to have disorder throughout! There 
musty therefore, be in the Family, obedience to its head, 
order, and good conduct. If there be insubordination, 
disorder, immorality, disrespect, and disobedience to the 
natural head, then that is a disorderly family, and those 
who are guilty of the disobedience, disrespect, and dis- 
order are criminals , to be corrected, restrained, and 
reformed. 

Woman, upon this right conception of the family, 
finds her proper and her honoured place. She is sub- 
ordinate, but not in any humiliating sense ; she is sub- 
ordinate, because, in the very nature of her function as 
woman in the economy of nature, she cannot be other- 
wise — she is timid, defenceless, dependent. She has a 
right to the tender care and protection of her male rela- 
tives ; and she, on her part, is bound to be obedient,, 
submissive, orderly ; and, upon these, affection follows. 


298 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


Her children are bound to respect and to obey her, and 
she is bound to have a care for them, and to respect 
and obey her husband as the unquestioned centre of 
regard and authority. The father (and husband) is the 
Head of the family ; there is no divided nor disputed 
power. Upon him rests the responsibility of due order 
and proper position. 

From her nature and duties, the woman lives retired 
within her house. If she go abroad, it will be only 
from necessity, and then in the most quiet, modest, and 
unobstrusive way. She lives for her relatives, her 
family ; not to attract the admiration of others, nor with 
the faintest idea that she may shine abroad — to be so 
charged would be to be charged as shameless. Only by 
this degraded class , who are barely tolerated without 
the city, and under the rigid supervision of the officers 
of order and decorum — could such a purpose be supposed 
to be thought of ? She dresses with neatness, according 
to the established order, but always with such modesty 
that nothing is. offensive to the chastest eye. She under- 
stands the range of her activity and of her affections. 
It is within the circle of family and relatives. All her 
accomplishments are to make her home pleasing. Duties 
and places are settled. She lives for those to whom 
she belongs, and who also belong to her. Her smiles 
are for her husband, and for her children, and her re- 
lations. She has no thought of going abroad to shine, 
nor to waste the time and money which belong to her 
family upon strangers. She never dreams that she has 
any mission which calls her away from her home. She 
has no call to “ clothe the ragged,” wash other people’s 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 299 

dirty children, reform evil-doers, “ convert the heathen ,” 
nor support “ Society ! ” (These are some of the phrases 
which you will hear among the Barbarian women). 

Where women have not husbands, none the less they 
have relatives, and their home is with them. They 
have a right to this home, and are hound to do their duty 
in it, submissively, usefully, and quietly. 

If the Western Barbarians would see to it that all 
women, married or unmarried, were duly cared for in 
homes of relatives, as of right, and that they also made 
themselves welcome there by their usefulness and obe- 
dience, they would find an end of that agitation as to 
W omen's Bights existing among them. Bights would be 
as indisputable as duties — and the first of these would 
be a quiet, modest, and rational obedience to their 
natural protectors, who, in turn, would be bound to 
respect and protect them. And if by any strange 
chance a woman was absolutely without relatives (a 
thing nearly impossible in our Flowery Land), then the 
State should see to it that she had a suitable home. 

The education of woman, in a well-ordered Society, 
is also fixed and clear. It has immediate relation to 
her position and her duties. 

She is from the first never disturbed in the natural 
order. She sees her relatives always quiet, modest, 
obedient . She never thinks this state of things to be 
wrong. She perceives the manner of female life; its 
seclusion, its devotion to the family, its purpose, and 
end. There is no complexity about it, no outside glitter, 
no field for show, no seeking for excitement and dis- 
play. All her duties are at home — her happiness is 


300 SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

there ; there she is to be attractive, and there she is to 
attract — the love and respect of her husband, the regard 
of her relatives, the affection and obedience of her 
children ! 

So, her education needs no straining after effect. It 
looks directly to her duties, to her natural function and 
place; and to those accomplishments, of mind and of 
person, which shall enable her to be happy w T ith books, 
with music, and the like ; and shall add to the pleasures 
of her home. 

All these things are common-place with us — so simple 
as to appear trivial. Our Illustrious wives and mothers 
could not understand the reasons for their elaboration — 
they have never seen the women of the Western Bar- 
barians ! 

The position of women in the Social system of the 
West, on the whole, is the most remarkable thing in it. 

I have made sufficiently suggestive remarks in the 
progress of these Observations; and only now have to 
add a word or two upon the general effect. 

It gives a wonderful life, restlessness, and colour to 
the whole aspect of Barbarian life. Think of all the 
women in our Illustrious Land, at once leaving their 
homes, the seclusion of their orderly houses and lives, 
and rushing everywhere with the men, over the Land ! 
And, not only so, dressed in splendid gaiety of colour, 
and adorned with gems and feathers, crowding into all 
places of amusement and of travel ! 

Nor this only, but showing themselves, in public 
places, with men, where paintings and sculpture, and 
things here only seen by men alone, are exhibited I 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 301 

And, often, so dressed as to cause even the man to 
blush ! 

Why, the face of social life is completely altered. 
Instead of gravity, dignity, and an undivided attention 
to the duties of daily life, everything is rendered restless, 
confused; there seems to be no natural order, nor scarcely 
natural (cultured) decorum. 

But we must not be misled. Nature is too strong to 
be pushed aside — and with cultivation, even though im- 
perfect, the moral instinct lives and saves. Habit, too, 
“ is a second nature (as our divine Confutzi says) ; and 
what would be so overwhelming, if at once done, being 
usual, necessarily has been subordinated to some rule — 
and made, at least, tolerable. 

And now, in drawing these Observations to an end, 
perhaps, I may add, in respect of my poor and unworthy 
thoughts, that if I have said amiss, and which offends, 
I beg our Illustrious will pardon. To our Literati , ex- 
alted in wisdom, there is but little to which they 
may curiously look — but to our people, if any there be 
with whom some discontent may have been caused by 
too close intimacy with Missionaries in our ports ; by 
these let my poor Observations be studiously pondered — 
that they may praise the Sovereign Lord of Heaven, 
who has given them to live in the Central and Illus- 
trious Kingdom; where a true morality and a true 
worship are known ; and where due order and peace, 
resting upon the unchangeable Heavenly order and 
peace, are established ! 

Here, are no brutal worship of Force, and admiration 
of bloody plunders. Content to the due ordering of 


302 


SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 


affairs, and with peace within, our Illustrious Eealm 
seeks no aggrandisement, dreams of no conquests ; and 
wishes to do nothing but good. It has no fears for its 
own position, nor jealousy of others. It is simply calm, 
strong, wise, and self-poised. It demands no more from 
others abroad than that it may peacefully live; and 
be treated with that respect which it accords to those who 
practise moderation and virtue. 


F I N I J5. 


Barrett, Sons & C ‘thing Lane, London, E.C. 









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